


Ties to Life

by Cenobia100



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, What if Ryoma survived chapter 2, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-01-15 10:48:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 29,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12319506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cenobia100/pseuds/Cenobia100
Summary: [Major V3 Spoilers]Ryoma meets with Kirumi in his lab as planned. He lets her knock him out as planned.Kirumi concocts a murder as planned. She begins to drown Ryoma as planned.But motivation shatters like glass. And one moment of hesitation changes the entire game.Ryoma finds the motivation to carry on.(30/03/2018 - Currently discontinued due to other projects. May revisit in future).





	1. The Prologue

"What on earth are you thinking?"

Ryoma Hoshi chewed on the candy cigarette in his mouth, glancing up at the dark haired boy that was approaching him. He had to admit, he was pretty surprised to see that this kid was still trying to talk with him. He could feel a bead of sweat roll down his face, narrowing his eyes as he tried to scan the other's face for any signs of ill intent. It wasn't normal.

Shuichi Saihara had been talking with him non-stop for the past few days. It seemed that since the loss of their leader figure, Kaede Akamatsu, Shuichi had been reluctant to really chat with any of the other teenagers. He had gotten extremely close to the blonde pianist but after Monokuma had her executed, it seemed Shuichi was ready to give up.

But the day after Kaede's death, Saihara had entered the dining hall without his hat and had started looking people in the eyes rather than hiding behind that detective's hat for so long. Ryoma was actually quite jealous. The Ultimate Detective's hat was made perfectly so he could avoid looking people in the eyes. On the flip side, Ryoma's beanie could only be pulled down so far before it just got awkward for everyone involved.

That was the weird thing though. Ryoma hadn't made an effort to get to know the rest of the group that well. He chatted with Kirumi on occasion as her role as the group's caretaker meant she wanted to help him as well. Sometimes he'd give Himiko a few words, since they were the smallest in the class and could at least relate on that fact. And he had taken on a big brother role with Gonta after having to help him understand how the Class Trial worked the few days prior.

Yet it was Shuichi who seemed to take up most of the tennis player's time. Initially, the Detective had been interested in his sporting career but somehow along the way he'd ended up venting to the guy about his love who had passed away, as well as his past. He'd warned Shuichi at that point to stay away. Contrary to popular belief, he enjoyed chatting with the detective, knowing there was someone who felt just as alone as he did in the school, but he couldn't let himself get used to such luxuries.

He didn't deserve the chance to chat with Saihara.

So when the boy approached him, yet again, a determined look on his face, Ryoma could only say, "You know full well you shouldn't bother with me... So why're you still here?"

The way Shuichi's pale olive eyes locked onto his own darkened gaze caused him to tense up. Shuichi was serious.

"I don't intend on throwing our relationship away, Ryoma. And I won't let you, either." The way he stated it with such confidence, with such authority, it was almost reminiscent of his old prison wardens. This, coming from the boy who, just a few days prior, wouldn't even look anyone in the eye. "You knew the consequences but stuck to your feelings anyway. I respect that. I don't want someone I respect to tell me that they have nothing."

Ryoma froze. Someone that Saihara respected? He was respected by the other boy? That was something he knew he didn't deserve. He was a murderer. And yet...

"That's why I want to stay by your side... as your classmate, and your friend."

He couldn't even reply to those words, his mouth refusing to open, his brain refusing to speak. All he could do was stare at the detective who had managed to shut him up with just a few words. Feelings of respect, of confusion and of anger seemed to meld in his mind as he tried to process the fact that Shuichi was trying to reach out to him with his words.

"Ryoma?" He heard Shuichi ask, realizing he'd probably looked a bit weird spacing out over his thoughts like that.

He let out a "Geez," before letting a small smile grace his face. "So this is what it's like to be at a loss for words. You're a bigger idiot than me." Looking up at Saihara, who looked a little concerned, he decided that he'd had enough with the facade. Perhaps letting himself relax and allow himself to enjoy life around his friend would be okay, just this once. "But... I don't dislike that about you," He finished, giving the boy a thumbs up.

"Ryoma..." Shuichi muttered quietly. The taller boy seemed pretty relieved, yet it was refreshing to see that the boy was calm as well. He wasn't freaking out over Ryoma letting himself go for a bit.

"Shuichi, you got a minute?" He hesitated for a moment, grabbing at his beanie instinctively before muttering," Let's go to my research lab."

Without saying another word or waiting for a reply, he grabbed Shuichi by the hand and began leading the surprised detective towards the third floor staircase, getting a few chuckles from Angie and Himiko in the hallway as they passed them by.

"R-Ryoma, you don't need to drag me," Shuichi feebly muttered, although he didn't pull away. Ryoma did lighten his grip somewhat though, acknowledging his friend to some degree.

It wasn't until they were in the safety of the tennis court that Ryoma finally let go of Shuichi's hand, strolling with purpose across the court towards the set of tennis rackets at the far end of the room. They were set up in a small glass case and as Ryoma allowed himself to pick up one of the small, light metallic rackets, he felt a weird sense of familiarity. It had been a long time since he'd held a racket.

"First, go ahead and take these," He said, turning back to Saihara, a racket and a tennis ball in his hands. He tossed them to the other boy, who looked at him confused. He gave the Detective a grin before stating, "I don't know if you've played tennis before, but you can hit the ball, right?"

Shuichi, now understanding the situation, took a moment to think, answering with a rather unsure, "Ah, I think I can..."

Now came the fun part. Up to this point, Shuichi had been determined to break through Ryoma's tough guy act. So now he had to test him for real. If Shuichi really wanted to be his friend, he'd need to pass this test. "Then I'm going to check your resolve."

He noticed Shuichi look at him with that bewildered expression that he'd gotten used to. In fact, he thought it looked quite charming on the young boy. "Ready? Aim for me with the ball."

Shuichi's eyes widened for a moment, although he never lost his composure. "Aim for you?"

"Try hitting me with it," Ryoma explained, balling up his right hand with determination, pointing at his face with his left. "Right in the face, if you can."

That caused Shuichi to lose his cool a bit. "You want me to do  _what!?_ " Saihara could only look at the smaller boy in surprise, glancing from the racket to the ball to Ryoma's face as if he'd just been told to kill a person. Not the best analogy given the situation but still. "Hit you...?" There was a hesitant crack in his voice. He might need a bit more persuasion. "Are you serious?"

"I said I was going to test your resolve right? So show me." He almost barked those words out, as if daring the other boy to try anything. It was stupid, he knew. The entire situation was insane, but if he was right in his guess and Shuichi did try and hit him, he knew it would be a cathartic time for the pair of them. They both needed to escape for a little while and he hadn't used tennis to escape in a  _very long time._

"Alright, I'll do it," Shuichi replied boldly, holding the racket in his hand, looking at the smaller boy with a steely resolve.

And that was just the reply he was hoping for. "Hmph, good answer. I knew you were that kind of idiot. Now, let's get stupid." He hadn't said that in a long time. The last time he'd "gotten stupid" was... With her. His girlfriend hadn't been amazing at tennis but she had some skills and they used to just play around all the time with mock tennis matches and fun practice.

And here he was, feeling that same rush of excitement again with a stranger that he barely knew, but who he felt he knew better than anyone else. He lightly gripped at his tennis racket, allowing himself to feel the energy in the air. He hadn't played tennis in such a long time and he knew he was rusty, but he wasn't going to let Shuichi off easy.

But he was surprised when he saw Shuichi serve the ball quite well. He hadn't expected much, but Shuichi's racket skills were pretty on point for someone with no training. He was so surprised that he forgot to actually hit the ball back and felt the tennis ball connect with his chest, knocking him back with a choked breath. "Damn," He muttered, glancing up at Shuichi, who looked terrified, the poor kid.

"R-Ryoma!?" The other called out, already power walking towards the net in concern.

"That was a good serve," He replied, grinning. "I could feel how serious you are." Shuichi hesitantly stopped as he said that, but any worries were gone when Ryoma stated, "But you've still got a ways to go!"

Deciding to return the favour before Shuichi could even realize, he'd tossed the tennis ball upwards and slammed his racket into it with a force that he hadn't used in a long time. The familiar sound of the ball hitting the racket reached his ears, like a melody that had long since been forgotten, now remembered after a long absence.

Shuichi, for what it was worth, was able to at least glance to the right as the tennis ball zoomed straight past his cheek, grazing it. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights and Ryoma loved it. The Detective was certainly easy to surprise and after all the surprises Shuichi kept springing on Ryoma with his actions and his caring, he thought it perfect to get some revenge.

"W-W-Wait a minute! You're gonna hit it  _back_ at me!?"

Ryoma darkly grinned, pulling down his beanie so that it covered his eyes somewhat. To anyone else it would look menacing, but he could sense that Shuichi knew he wasn't actively trying to harm him. "I never said I wouldn't. Don't worry. I won't hit any vital parts." That was a lie.

* * *

"Hey, Shuichi..." Ryoma muttered, utterly exhausted as the two lay down on the court, energy completely spent after such a rigorous session of tennis. He'd tested Shuichi's resolve and after a good hour of just messing around, having fun and actually getting the chance to enjoy himself, he finally felt himself wanting to just sit down and sleep.

At his words, he noticed the detective, who's head was just a few paces away, glance over at him. Shuichi looked wiped out. He was a pro tennis player but Shuichi was just a detective. He couldn't even imagine how bad the boy must have been feeling after all that game, but if Shuichi wanted Ryoma to worry, he wasn't showing it.

"Even if we get out of here, I'll still be in prison, but..."

That little but at the end there. Normally, he'd be resigned to his fate. He hadn't thought about his future or what he might want from his future for a long time. He thought he had nothing to look forward to, nobody to care about... And yet. "If I ever get out... I'm going to go and pick up everything I threw away. It's too late for a lot of things, but if I can still reach some... I'd like to bear those stains again."

The detective gave him a warm smile, but not before Hoshi added a little something extra. "Just like how I'm bearing you on my back right now." That sounded cheesy as all hell, but he was glad his cheeks naturally had a red tint to them otherwise Saihara might have noticed the slight blush that had crept on to his features.

As composed as ever, he heard Saihara give a silent, "Yeah."

"But we need to get past Monokuma first if we're to do that," The smaller boy admitted, unease creeping in to the conversation. He'd actually come to terms that he might not even survive the killing game much longer, but these few hours with Shuichi had certainly given him more of a reason to keep his spirits up. "And I still haven't had the chance to watch my motive video."

"You want to watch yours?" Saihara asked quietly, arching his brow as he leaned on his side to face the small brown haired boy.

"Yeah, I do." Ryoma looked down at his hand for a moment before glancing back up. "I need to watch my video. You all want me to stay and fight with you all. My video is that motive. My motive to live."

"What about us?" Shuichi asked.

For a moment, Ryoma thought he meant the two of them, but he assumed Shuichi probably meant the rest of the group as a whole. Not that he would have minded Shuichi meaning himself. He had to admit, the detective had a way of convincing him to keep going, as if the spirit of Kaede was living on inside of the boy.

"I already have you all. But I need something to look forward to, something to tell me I have a future."

"Do you know who has your video?" Shuichi asked quietly, concern crossing his eyes.

"Maki Harukawa." Shuichi's eyes widened at that. Maki hadn't looked at her video apparently, but just knowing she had Ryoma's video, it left a worried taste in Shuichi's mouth. "I'm going to trade with her tonight."

"Promise me you won't do anything stupid when you watch the video?" Shuichi asked the smaller boy, reaching out a hand in an attempt to shake Ryoma's arm.

Ryoma couldn't help but chuckle. "If it stops you worrying, fine kid." The smaller boy took his hand, shaking it, letting a wide grin cross his face. Now he couldn't do anything stupid lest he end up breaking his promise. And if there was one thing Ryoma gave a shit about, it was his promises. "Thanks Shuichi..."

* * *

"Let me get this straight," A rather bored sounding female voice whispered in the dead of night. Maki Harukawa leaned against her research lab's door, glancing down at the tiny visitor in front of her. Even at midnight, he was still chewing his candy like a champ. "You want your motive video because you're looking for a reason to live?"

"That's right," Ryoma replied gruffly, giving Maki one of his patented thumbs up. "I figure if my motive video shows me what I've got to fight for, I can get the will to keep going." It was a long shot and he had no idea what was waiting for him on his motive video, but he needed to see who was important to him. He needed to know that there was something outside worth fighting for. Otherwise what was the point.

"So why should I give it to you? It could just be another motive to kill," Maki explained, revealing the Monokub Pad that Ryoma so desperately wanted. His eyes darted to the colourful tablet, tensing up as she continued to glance at him.

"I've already explained it, Maki, but this would be my motive to live. I've got nothing going for me when I leave here, I'm on death row and I ruined my future," He explained grimly, turning away from the girl for a moment as he wistfully looked towards a barbed wire window in the corner. "Even so, someone here thinks I deserve a second chance."

His thoughts turned back to Gonta's attack earlier in the day. Apparently Gonta had been apprehending students for a Bug Meet and Greet session and he'd let Saihara get captured outside of the dormitory. But in those moments, he once again found himself enjoying his time with the other students. Though Gonta's chase had certainly worn him down, he had to admit it was a lot of fun.

Couple that with Shuichi's insistent attempts on trying to get him to hold on to life and even Kaito's angry outbursts about how disappointed he was in Ryoma and it was a recipe for change. All he needed now was the motive video to solidify his resolve to survive.

"It's a risk on my part, Ryoma. Why should I bother?" Maki asked pointedly, glancing around to see if anyone was listening. As far as either of them knew, nobody was around at midnight, but she knew how crafty some of these students were and he knew how dumb some of the students were. Eavesdropping certainly wasn't beyond any of them.

He was getting impatient now. She seemed like she was trying to lead him around in circles. He'd need to use his secret weapon if he wanted to get that motive video of off her. Grasping at his beanie, he pulled it down slightly, letting his game face show. He wanted to intimidate and knew this could backfire horribly, but it was now or never. "I watched your motive video, that's why you should bother, Ultimate Assassin."

Maki's expression changed in an instant, her eyes growing cold and stony, her entire stance shifting to one of pure hatred as she glared daggers at the smaller boy. He wasn't afraid though. He'd been on death row, he'd seen much worse than a simple school girl assassin. He noticed her free hand dart to her pocket. No doubt she was ready to take him out if he wasn't careful. Dying by an assassin certainly wasn't on his to-do list.

"Why should I let you live?" She hissed, any emotion in her voice replaced by a calculatingly cold whisper.

"You kill me and you die anyway," Ryoma shrugged, keeping his composure as the assassin pondered his words. "You can kill, but you can't hide a body or cover up a crime. But if you give me my motive video, I might be persuaded to keep my mouth shut." He held out the Monokub Pad that had Maki's video on it teasingly. He knew she'd have to agree.

And sure enough she huffed, thrusting her Monokub Pad towards the small boy. The exchange took just a few moments and a few seconds later, they had their own motive videos in their hands.

"Thanks, you're doing my a big favor here," Ryoma stated, turning away from the assassin. She watched as he began to stroll away down the hallway, giving her a thumbs up as he left.

He heard her door slam shut and only after he turned the corner away from her hall did he release the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. "Geez, that was tenser than I expected."

As he walked, he glanced down at his Kub Pad. There was no need to really wait, right. This video would have a reason for him to live, he'd be happy and ready to move on with the rest of the class. He'd be able to focus on surviving this hell hole and work towards the goal of escaping. And it all started with this video.

So he pressed play.

One minute later, he was curled up in his tennis lab, blankly staring out into space, trying to hold back the tears that wouldn't come. Blank. Just like his current emotions, his motive video was completely blank. Nobody was out there waiting for him, not his old tennis colleagues, not his cat, not anybody. And Monokuma had gotten his hopes up only to have the dashed again.

Bitterly, he spat at the wall, knowing that it was his fault. He allowed himself a moment of peace, to forget the burdens of the lives he carried, to let himself dream about actually having a future and actually be released from Prison. He was a fool, Shuichi was a fool, Maki was a fool, everyone in this stupid school was a fool, but none was worse than himself. "I've still got a ways to go," He muttered darkly, clenching his fists.

He was so annoyed that he hadn't noticed the door of his Ultimate Lab quietly open, although when he heard the footsteps, his eyes glanced up to find a rather surprising figure standing in front of him. "Kirumi? Do you need anything?" His voice sounded raw and uncomfortable, weak and tiny. He just wanted to curl up and let death take him, let alone talk with anyone else.

"Ryoma, I..." Kirumi paused, unsure about what to say. So instead, she pulled out a Monokub Pad and simply passed it over to the small boy who took it from her with a raised brow. "Please, watch this video. You will understand once once you do."

Keeping his back against the wall, just in case, he glanced back at the maid before opening the video. Kirumi Tojo's motive video, interesting how she had her own video. That was raising a few flags. But he was surprised as the video continued to play that Kirumi was a little more important than she had been letting on.

"You're the real Prime Minister of Japan," He muttered as the video finished, passing the pad back to Kirumi, who nodded with the grace and dignity of a maid. But she seemed troubled. It only took a moment for what was troubling her to click in his mind. "I see. You want to escape, for the country, right?"

"You have guessed correct," Tojo admitted, face as calm and composed as the day they'd met.

"I have to admire that. You've got such a strong reason to live and..." He paused, glancing down at his own Kub Pad. "I have none at all." But that was a lie right? That slight nagging sensation and a black haired detective invaded his thoughts at that moment, but he repressed those emotions down, feeling his stomach twisting in knots as he glanced at the broom that the maid was holding.

He knew what she was planning to do. She knew he knew what she was planning to do. The killing intent was there... Bitterly, he gave a quiet chuckle, placing what he assumed would be his last candy cigarette in his mouth. "You know what, Kirumi, I just remembered. I never cleaned up the tennis balls from my match with Saihara earlier."

Pushing himself away from the wall, he reached down for the nearest tennis ball, glancing back up at the maid. "If you could give me a minute to just clean these up." He didn't even wait for the reply, grabbing at another tennis ball, this time facing completely away from the maid, back turned to her.

At least he could pretend in his final moments, right? Those suicidal tendencies of his only grew as he retrieved a third tennis ball, wondering when he would feel the broom on the back of his neck. It didn't matter though, really. He wasn't worth a grain of sand. He didn't even have the right to live when everyone else had so clearly brought their A-game when it came to their motivations. He wasn't motivated, he had nothing to live for. So why should he care? At least he could help out the one person who wanted to live the most... Right?

The crunch on the back of his head stopped his train of thought, the sudden pain causing him to soundlessly cry out as he sunk to the floor. Everything was dark except for the throbbing on the back of his neck. He was expecting more pain, another bludgeon to the back of the head or something, so when he felt himself being dragged, he had to wonder what was going on.

After about twenty seconds, he was released, slumping onto the cold tiles of... Was this his shower room floor? Why hadn't she finished him off alread-

The clink of handcuffs though. That snapped him back to reality. Blinking his eyes open, his breathing began to quicken and he silently became aware of a tap running in the distance. He wanted to push himself up but the handcuffs now wrapped around his hands wouldn't let him move at all. Fuck, this wasn't how he wanted to go. Quick and painless was what he was expecting, not slow and painful.

But being cuffed like the Ultimate Prisoner he was didn't agree with him. Sure, if his life wasn't on the line, he might laugh at the irony of the situation. She was forcing him to relive his past and he grimly realized that if this was how he died, he'd never be able to escape his sins. Even then he was just a prisoner, trapped until the sweet release of death claimed him.

But those handcuffs scratched against his skin, forcing him to be acutely aware of just how surreal the situation was and just how much he really didn't want to be there. Then he felt a hand on his neck, clutching him where he'd been whacked by what he assumed was Kirumi's broom. He felt his body being lifted and then-

"Kirumi..." He muttered.

He couldn't say anything else as his head was thrust forwards, feeling something cold brush against his skin, engulfing him. It took him just a moment to realize what it was. Water. She was drowning him.

Now the handcuffs made sense. He wouldn't be able to pull away if he changed his mind. Drowning wasn't the best way to go and he knew he'd start struggling involuntarily in a few moments, but he had to admit there was a serene peace about letting his mind float away as he slowly ran out of air. Mentally, he wasn't sure if he wanted to die just yet. This death was humiliating and demeaning, but it was nothing he didn't deserve.

And yet his thoughts drifted back to Shuichi and their chat earlier in the day. "What about us?" He'd asked. Ryoma had almost scoffed at the idea that he could live for thirteen other students. He was okay with dying right? So why was his mind focusing so much on Saihara in his final moments.

He was barely aware that his arms were trying to break free, that the handcuff was scratching at the sink with increased fervor. His mouth opened, finally needing air, feeling water rush into his lungs. Everything was beginning to darken. He wanted out, he didn't want to drown. It all hit him in a flash but his body felt like lead. He couldn't move. Then he blacked out.

* * *

"Hey Kaito, I'm gonna have to skip training tonight. After the Meet and Greet, I don't think I can handle it," Shuichi admitted, pushing back a strand of hair as he glanced around the darkened corridor of the second floor. Breathing out a sigh of relief at having escaped the Ultimate Entomologist's lab, he'd ran into Kaito on the stairs leading to the third floor.

"That's fine, bro," Kaito dismissed, glancing around carefully. "Gonta's not still trying to catch anybody, right?"

"No, he stopped when he realized Kokichi was just using him," Shuichi explained with a shrug, turning his attention to the third floor and the astronaut in front of him. "Wait, what were you even doing on the third floor? It's midnight man and last I heard you were hiding in the dorms."

Kaito's face flushed red for a moment and Shuichi could only raise a brow at the purple haired boy's awkwardness. "I was uh... Damnit..." Kaito looked away from the detective, face now full on blushing. "I was trying to talk to Maki Roll."

"Maki Roll?" Shuichi asked incredulously. He called bull shit on Maki being okay with that nickname. There was no way she was okay with that.

"Shaddup," Kaito grumbled, looking away in embarrassment. It soon passed though as Kaito glanced up to the third floor, then back to Saihara with a curious look. "Actually though, I did notice something a little odd. Dunno if you can make any sense of it bro."

Shuichi tensed up at this. Anything odd in this school was usually a bad thing and Monokuma had been incredibly silent for the past two days. Normally he'd be blabbering on about how students should be murdering each other. So if he wasn't talking, that meant there was probably a plan of some sort in motion. "What is it, Kaito?"

"Well, you know Ryoma, the suicidal guy," Kaito explained, Shuichi instantly giving Kaito the largest frown possible at that comment. "S-Sorry, forgot you've been hanging with him."

"What about him?" Shuichi asked, masking the annoyance for Kaito with his concern for Ryoma.

"I saw him walking back from Maki Roll's research lab and he was watching a motive video," Kaito paused for a moment, pointing upwards. "He didn't see me since we crossed on opposite sides of the main hall."

Shuichi's eyes widened. He'd made the trade then. That meant, at least according to their chat earlier in the day, that Ryoma had a reason to live right? Shuichi had been trying to get Ryoma to open up for days ever since Kaede mentioned in passing how Ryoma was such a closed book back in their first few days at the academy. It was an unlikely friendship but it was something that Shuichi found he treasured quite closely. He wouldn't admit it, but having a friend who was a lot calmer than himself was comforting for the detective.

It's not like he didn't like Kaito or anything, but the purple haired astronaut was a lot to handle and his over-confident smile could be grating over long conversations. Kaito also punched him during the last trial and he still had a bruise from the impact. First impressions were certainly iffy with the astronaut.

"Ah, Shuichi, Kaito, good evening," Another voice cut in, the pair turning to see the feminine maid, Kirumi Tojo, walking along the hall towards them. She was carrying a broom and a dustpan, glancing between the two with an inquisitive look. "Shouldn't you both be asleep? It's past midnight you know."

"Sorry Kirumi," Shuichi chuckled, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I, uh, got caught in Gonta's Bug Meet and Greet. Then I got caught talking with Kaito here and we lost track of time." He looked the maid up and down, noting that she looked just as pristine as she did during the mornings. Did she ever stain her clothing or was she that perfect? "What about you Kirumi?"

"I was just going to see if Maki required a midnight snack. I also plan to clean the third floor while I do this, of course. I am a maid after all." She gave the two a nod as she stepped on past them.

"Hey Kirumi, can you check on Ryoma for me?" Shuichi blurted out suddenly. He sounded a little desperate as he asked, but he wasn't sure if the tennis player wanted to see him just yet. He wanted to give the boy a bit of time to process his motive video, while Kirumi was a trusted individual among the whole group. "He's probably in his research lab."

"Of course," Kirumi nodded, heading out of sight, although he noticed that Kirumi's posture had tensed as Hoshi's name. Had Ryoma done something to offend Kirumi?

"What was that about?" Kaito asked, glancing at Shuichi suspiciously.

There was a pregnant pause as Shuichi tried to think about how to explain the situation. But after a few moments, he tried to explain to Kaito what was going on as best he could. He told the boy about Ryoma's motive video and what it meant to the boy, as well as their tennis match from earlier in the day, which seemed to get Kaito revved up.

"He's playing tennis again! That's it, I'm gonna go challenge him to a match  _right now!"_ Shuichi really should have expected this as Kaito stormed up the stairs, Shuichi calling out his name in utter horror. He knew Ryoma definitely didn't want to play tennis at midnight. And Kaito had missed the entire point of the conversation! The important part was about his motive video and his reason to live, not that he's playing tennis again.

"Kaito, seriously, stop!" He shouted, grabbing on to the boy's shoulder as they stood right outside of the Ultimate Tennis Lab. "You can't just go asking people for challenges at midnight. And it's not like Ryoma's gone back to tennis, he just played one match with me, that's all. And you're missing the point, man!"

"Yeah well, we all knew about Ryoma Hoshi in the old tennis clubs back at school," Kaito explained, looking away annoyed. "And I looked up to him. So I'm glad you helped him out, you hear, Shuichi! But I'm still asking for a matc-"

As Kaito pushed open the door, they both glanced in the room, surprised to see there was no Ryoma to be found. He wasn't there? But he hadn't come down the stairs and Kaito had seen him earlier on when he was visiting Maki. Actually, now that he thought about it, where was Kirumi? He asked her to check on him.

Glancing around the room, he noticed a small stack of tennis balls near the net that hadn't been stacked like that when he was in the room with Ryoma earlier in the day. He took a few steps towards the small stack when his body froze, eyes darting to what lay next to the balls. "Kaito!"

The other boy had made the run over to him in a second, glancing down at what Shuichi was looking at. Kirumi's broom sat on the floor next to the tennis balls, but what concerned Shuichi was the traces of blood across the broom's handle. "Shit!" Kaito hissed, glancing around.

That was when they heard it. In the distance, all they could hear was the sound of muffled sobbing. Shuichi raised a hand to Kaito, trying to keep him from rushing straight towards the source of the noise, the shower room.

Shuichi crept towards the shower room door, grasping at the valve handle to peer inside and what he saw made his blood run cold.

* * *

Kirumi stared at the Tennis Pro, who had started cleaning up some tennis balls on his court, with a quiet resolve.

She was a strong woman with the drive and motivation to succeed and complete every task asked of her. She had tried making herself useful as a maid for those around the school and Kaede had mentioned how dependent the group might get towards Kirumi's actions the day before her death. She had only come to realize just how dependent people were on her skills when she watched her motive video.

Somehow she had forgotten that she was the de-facto Prime Minister of the entire country of Japan. She controlled Japan from behind the scenes, making the tough choices and leading her country through a time of peace and prosperity. And being stuck within the walls of this Academy was doing her country a disservice.

Monokuma had threatened that something bad could happen to the country if she didn't escape and those words drove her into a frenzy as she began to plan out a potential murder. It all started with selecting a victim, something that she could do easily given that she usually had one on one conversations with everyone in the school.

Eventually, she had picked out Ryoma Hoshi. Unlike the rest of the school, Ryoma was the only person who wasn't exactly close to anyone. Maki was in the same category, however there was an aggression coming from the Caregiver that Kirumi felt was best avoided. So she planned. A glass divider in the piranha tank in the Gym, a bundle of rope obtained from Himiko's set, her trusty gloves and a blow-up tube from the pool. It was a simple plan, really.

She discovered through Kokichi that her target had not been caught by Gonta and assumed that Hoshi was doing his own thing at that point. She hoped that he would eventually return to his lab for the night so that her plan could be placed in motion. She hadn't expected to find Kaito and Shuichi still lounging around the third floor stairwell, but her brief conversation with them told her that Ryoma was in his lab.

She had hurried into his lab quietly and explained her situation via her video. It was a simple way of going over things and, unlike many of the other students, he seemed all too aware of her intentions from the moment the video stopped playing. And then he had the audacity to purposefully turn his back and offer up his life. It was a chance she just had to take.

Lifting her broom, she approached him silently from behind before slamming the wooden pole down onto his neck with a crunch. A small splatter of blood dripped from the impact, coating the broom and dripping to the floor. She knew that wasn't enough to kill him though, and blunt force trauma would be too easy to reveal in a trial.

She quickly moved around to grab at his arms, pulling with little force as Ryoma's body slid across the tennis court without much trouble. She needed to get him into the bathroom and fast, lest he wake up and change his mind. Although as she dragged him into the Ultimate Prisoner's shower room, her mind flashed towards Saihara and his concern for the tennis player.

She couldn't let emotions get the better of her. She'd already swung the broom and knocked the boy out, there was no going back from this... Right?

Slipping her hand around a pair of handcuffs on the wall, she took a pair in her hands and quickly switched on all the taps of the sink. She leaned down towards Ryoma's barely conscious form and slipped his hands into the cuffs. There was a dramatic irony to all of this that wasn't lost on her and she wished she could end him in any other way, but her options were limited.

Kirumi lifted Ryoma's body with her hands, one around his neck, the other around his waist, before taking a few steps towards the slowly filling sink. This would only take a few moments. "Kirumi..." He breathed out, her body tensing for a moment, the pain in his voice registering in her head with a sudden horrific feeling. She was about to murder a classmate to escape. For her country... For her people...

Closing her eyes with determination, she slammed his head forwards into the water and instantly she began to feel his body force itself against her. She needed to keep all her focus if she wanted to keep him under. He was a tennis pro and a strong person despite his size and yet though his body was forcing itself out of the sink, she could feel that his mind had long since given up.

Had he truly nothing to live for like he claimed?

His movements began to slow, dulling down under her force as she pressed harder, a sudden wave of anger coursing through her. This whole situation was awful and her country was in trouble and she had to kill someone who trusted her to get out. This whole thing was just...

And in that brief moment of anger, she felt the image of a blonde girl with musical note hairclips and a bright smile invade her thoughts. Kaede's wish was for them all to escape together. Her dying wish. That wish was real. But Monokuma's motive, how could he know what would befall her country.

In this moment of hesitation, her grip loosened, her resolve crumbling in an instant, feeling herself slip backwards, still clutching Ryoma's neck as she dropped to the floor in shock. Ryoma's head emerged from the basin, slipping backwards as Kirumi allowed herself to let go of the smaller boy, watching as he fell to his side, coughing fiercely.

And through the confusion that had suddenly invaded her mind, she realized one simple thing. She hadn't killed Ryoma.

* * *

Ryoma lungs burned as he finally breathed in the somewhat stagnant air of the shower room, vision hazy and head spinning as he lay there on the cold tiles, wondering what the hell had just happened. His head throbbed and he felt like every movement was jarringly painful. His throat was sore and hoarse from all the water he'd swallowed and all the coughing that he'd just had to do.

But it was his thoughts that were scrambled the most. What the hell just happened?

That was when he heard the sob.

The soft voice of a broken woman pierced his ears and all he could do was wince. It was loud, he didn't need loud right now, but with the adrenaline of his drowning still in full force, he found the strength to roll his body slightly to face the person who had, moments before, attempted to take his life.

Kirumi looked like a mess. Her dress was soaked from the water that he had splashed everywhere during his dunk in the sink. He could see a slight tear in her dress, probably caused by his feet kicked out at her. Her gloved hands were trembling, that calm composure that she was famous for dissolved in an instant. And as he glanced up at her face, all he could see was the pale, terrified gaze of a young eighteen year-old girl.

In that moment, she was not the Ultimate Maid, the reliable pillar of the group, but the young teenager, Kirumi Tojo. And he had to admit, he wasn't feeling like much of a Tennis Pro himself after his brush with death.

She choked out another sob, staring down to meet his eyes with reluctance and fear, hands twitching as she sobbed, "I c-couldn't do it..."

One thing was for sure. This was not the same woman who, moments ago, had tried to take his life for her country. No, that determination and resolve had shattered like glass. Almost like it was a barrier or a facade. The vulnerable Kirumi Tojo had probably not seen the light of day in a long time, but he had to admit that attempted murder definitely brought out the realness in people.

Because in no other situation could he imagine the few tears that had began to run down his face.

He didn't feel like crying emotionally, however his body didn't feel like his own in that moment, salty tears dripping from his eyes in unnatural fashion. All he could do was lay there as Kirumi sobbed silently.

"Look at us," He finally said, breaking the monotonous sobs with a bitter chuckle. "Can't even die right."

Kirumi let out a nervous chuckle-sob, covering her mouth with one of her gloved hands as she began to wipe away her tears with her other glove. Her shoulders sagged against the stone wall of the Shower Room as she let the weight of everything crash down on her. Ryoma imagined that she was already battling with her duty towards their country now that she'd lost her killing intent.

"Kirumi? Ryoma?"

That voice. No... He couldn't be here.

Ryoma glanced towards the door, not even able to look the Ultimate Detective, Shuichi Saihara, in the eyes.


	2. Daily Life 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, for the most part, the chapter is from Ryoma's POV but it does change to third person once the whole cast of characters starts arriving, but will sometimes go in to a Ryoma/Shuichi POV depending on who's talking/doing important stuff. So sorry if it gets confusing at all.

_**Chapter 2 - Daily Life 1** _

"Kirumi? Ryoma?"

The cautious, yet concerned voice of Shuichi Saihara rang through the Shower Room, alerting the pair in the room to their new observers. Ryoma glanced towards the door wearily, not meeting the gaze of the dark haired boy who stood there with a look of surprise etched across his face.

The tennis pro couldn't bare to look the boy that had inspired him in the eyes. One glance and he was sure that Shuichi would see that the fire to live and the desire to survive had flickered out of existence. Earlier that day, he felt the flames of hope in his heart and he was almost ready to fight with the rest of the students. But that motive video had plucked away his feelings of goodwill, reminding him that even if he escaped with everyone, his life was meaningless.

Who would miss a death row inmate that had no remaining family or friends?

"What the hell?" He heard a manly voice growl, recognizing the confident tones of Kaito Momota.

He closed his eyes in annoyance, feeling that loud voice reverberating in his busted eardrums. He did not need that clown trying to deal with the situation. His voice was literally the last thing Ryoma wanted and he was about as subtle as a bull in a china shop when it came to serious situations.

Kirumi tensed up, her puffy red eyes glancing towards the door, now aware of the pair that was standing in the tennis lab next door, herself. He noticed her eyes widen and a look of utter horror and shame crashed down upon her, eyes darting to the floor downcast, teeth clenched in embarrassment. Even her hair seemed to wilt downwards to the ground as the reality of the situation began to wash over her.

"Are you guys alright?" Kaito asked, stepping through the doorway with Shuichi, both keeping their distance from the pair by the window.

Ryoma could see the hesitation in Kaito's eyes as he assessed the situation and Shuichi seemed too surprised by the scene unfolding around him to even move a muscle past Kaito. Neither of them wanted to get close in case something was going on and he had to admit, now that they were actively avoiding him, his first impressions of, "Stay away from me," might not have been his best move.

"We're fine," He finally replied, noting that Kirumi had chosen not to speak, her gloved hand covering her mouth now as she looked towards the two boys in absolute despair. "Well, aside from my busted neck, I think we're alright."

Shuichi was staring at him from behind Kaito, his expression changing from surprise to concern in an instant. The black haired boy took a step towards the smallest figure in the room, eyes widening at something. "R-Ryoma, are you crying?"

"Not voluntarily," He admitted, wiping away a few of the tears that had been building up with his bloodied dark black jacket sleeve. He meant what he said. Those tears weren't exactly something he felt. He didn't feel like screaming, crying or going mad. Most of his emotions tended to bottle up and he liked to keep them hidden pretty deep. Even so, he had to admit that he felt somewhat shaken up by the whole scenario.

Whether it was Kirumi's vulnerable side showing him that there are people underneath the talents or Shuichi's simple proclamation of Ryoma's emotions or even Kaito's unwavering confidence and concern for the pair, it all just felt extremely surreal. He had thrown out anything surreal after his life in prison had hardened him against pretty much anything life could throw in his direction.

But that definitely didn't account for a killing game, a robot bear and a group of teenagers who were just as crazy, if not crazier, than him.

"What happened here?" This time it was Kaito who asked, glancing between the two with a serious stare. "We found Kirumi's broom outside. There was blood on it."

Kaito wasn't fooling anyone and everyone in that room knew it. It was very clear what had transpired in the room and judging by the splatters of blood on his clothes and Kirumi's guilty look, it was pretty obvious that Kaito was looking for any other explanation but the truth.

As he glanced over at the maid, wondering if she was going to confess, he noticed that she had somewhat regained her composure. She still seemed concerned and it looked more like a front she was keeping up than her actual feelings, but she was trying to keep whatever dignity she had left from slipping away. As a maid, it was probably the only thing she really had left, and he did non-verbally agree to the plan. They were both in the wrong here, so who was he to take away the last bit of dignity she had.

"I think you'll understand if you look at Kirumi's motive video," Ryoma muttered, throwing the maid out into the open. It wasn't a betrayal, but at least Kaito and Shuichi would be able to understand her motivations.

She gave him a stare that he couldn't really place before fishing through her soaked and torn dress for her Monokuma Kub Pad, pulling it out and passing it to Ryoma shakily, Ryoma reaching for it with his cuffed hands. The tremors were still there in her hands, quaking like she was having a personal earthquake. In a sense, her world was crashing down around her, he had to imagine.

He tossed the Kub Pad towards Shuichi and Kaito without moving his body forwards, finding it difficult with the handcuffs biting at his arms, but somehow managing it. Though he didn't want to admit it, now that he'd picked himself up to lean against the wall, he didn't feel like moving, or rather his body didn't feel like reacting. The dull throbbing in his head was growing stronger and more painful. The adrenaline had to be burning out. Great...

"This is Kirumi's motive video?" Shuichi asked him, giving the detective a half-hearted thumbs up in reply, still not meeting his gaze.

It only took them a minute to watch the video, Kaito's stern gaze giving way to shock as the video finished, the purple haired boy glancing over at the fallen maid with a look of pure confusion. Shuichi, for it's worth, had managed to stay relatively calm, probably out of necessity given that someone needed to be the calm one in the group, what with two of them being accessories to an attempted murder.

"You're the fucking Prime Minister?" Kaito exclaimed in surprise, looking at Kirumi, who met his gaze with a saddened look of her own. At least  _she_  could meet their eyes and look at them as they realized what she had attempted to do.

Shuichi glanced at Kirumi, then to Ryoma, before stating, "An entire country versus thirteen lives..." He turned to Kaito, who had finally decided to approach the pair. Ryoma watched as the astronaut moved over to Kirumi, reaching a hand out.

"Don't try anything funny," Kaito hissed, Kirumi agonizingly grasping onto his hand with reluctance.

Ryoma didn't even look at the maid as Kaito began to lead her out of the room towards the door. Shuichi took a few steps towards him before turning back to Kaito. "Hey, once Kirumi's settled on the tennis court, can you go ahead and wake up the others at the dorms and tell them to come here with their motive videos. Don't let anybody leave theirs behind." The serious tone of Shuichi's voice was assertive and Ryoma could see that Kaito wasn't expecting Shuichi to be so forceful.

"Wake up the others?" Kaito parroted, giving Shuichi a confused stare. "What the hell for?"

Shuichi glanced back towards Ryoma, the tennis boy tensing up as he felt himself look away from the detective's calculating stare. "We can't let this go on anymore. We're getting the motives out in the open. Tell them there was an attempted murder."

Shuichi walked towards the back of the room, grabbing a pair of handcuffs that were hanging from the wall above the sink, passing by Ryoma in both directions quickly. The smaller boy thought he could see a hint of fear in Shuichi's look as the detective glanced at the tennis pro and he had to wonder if Shuichi had already figured everything out.

"Kirumi," Shuichi said, holding the handcuffs in his hands. "For everyone's protection, I must ask that you put these on." He gestured to the cuffs, looking between the maid and Kaito sternly.

The maid bowed her head silently, holding up her arms in defeat. Ryoma noted that as the cuffs clinked on, Kirumi stopped shaking, any tenseness or fear replaced by what could only be described as full exhaustion. In that moment, watching Kirumi leave the shower room, he felt like he was back in the old days, smelling the stench of blood and shit that had permeated his killing spree against the mafia. Of course, that was all in his head, but damn if it wasn't at the forefront of his mind at that moment.

He knew he'd done wrong to the others. He had willingly allowed himself to go along with this plan and the guilt was eating away at him, causing the pain in his neck to amplify as he doubled forwards, feeling something begin to come up from the depths of his stomach. Excess water and bile from his drowning purged itself from his body with a sickening splat.

As he continued to wretch, he felt a hand on his back as he stayed hunched over, the hand rubbing circles in his back in an attempt to keep him company, but it felt suffocating to him. He knew the detective was concerned about him but his actions were only making Ryoma's stomach lurch further and further.

"Ryoma," He heard the detective say calmly, noting that Shuichi was crouched down next to him, leaning against the wall of the shower room, looking out at the doorway to the tennis court. "She didn't take you by surprise, did she."

It wasn't a question but a statement. Ryoma, now with a completely empty stomach, felt himself sag backwards against the wall, right into Saihara's arm that had wrapped itself around his back to keep him steady.

"I don't know the full details Ryoma, but for some reason you broke our promise, didn't you."

He  _had_  made a promise, right... He held his promises to a high regard and he'd completely thrown away Saihara's trust by, in Shuichi's words, doing something stupid after watching his motive video. Had he not been vomiting on the floor with what he assumed was a concussion and not had his life almost ended through drowning, he might have given a bitter chuckle at his own situation.

Reality was a bitter pill to swallow and the truth was something he couldn't deny any longer.

"I've still got a ways to go," He muttered under his breath, hearing his voice even more cracked from the vomiting.

"Look at me Ryoma," Shuichi whispered quietly, just low enough so if Kirumi was attempting to listen from the other room, she wouldn't hear.

He couldn't look. He couldn't look the detective in the eyes. The betrayal that he knew would be on Shuichi's face would be too much to bear.

"Ryoma, please." Shuichi's voice had raised slightly, as if he was almost begging the tennis pro to look up. "Why can't you face me?"

Taking a deep breath, Ryoma spat out, "Because I can't say what you want to hear." Ryoma closed his eyes painfully, knowing that Shuichi was probably angry at him or worse. "Because the truth hurts."

There was a pregnant pause as his words sunk in, Ryoma refusing to look anywhere except the tiled stone floor of the shower room that was now coated with water, vomit and scratch marks, the pair of handcuffs he was locked in biting against his wrists like hot iron.

"You know..." Shuichi muttered, his voice now as calm as it had been during their chat earlier in the day on the courts. "A great person once told me to never look away from the truth, no matter how cruel it may be." He couldn't help but let his mind flash to Kaede, that blonde pianist that had inspired the group to survive. She had been coaching Saihara throughout that whole trial, preparing the detective for the road ahead, while letting everyone else know that they had what it took to escape.

And Ryoma had to admit, when he saw the Pianist hung and killed, he was pissed. Beyond pissed at the cruel reality that they had all been placed in. But it was no different to being on death row where he knew he'd probably be executed sooner or later. But as her words came back to him, her wish of survival ringing in his ears, he knew what he had to do.

Letting his soaking wet beanie slide backwards against the wall, he turned his head to face the detective, looking him right in his olive eyes expecting to see a look of betrayal or an anger there.

He wasn't expecting sorrow or concern.

"Geez," He stated, letting a solemn smile cross his face. "You're still stupid, caring about someone like me. Someone who doesn't want to live."

"I was right then," Saihara choked out, emotion creeping into his voice. "You let her attack you, didn't you."

He wanted nothing more than to pull his beanie down and hide his face from the detective but his cuffed hands wouldn't raise far enough without looking too awkward. It wasn't worth the hassle at this point, so he simply nodded. "I may be unimportant but she was the most important person here." Being the Prime Minister was serious business. "So I decided to give my life to her."

"And doom the rest of us to death after we fought so hard to stay alive," Shuichi stated quietly. There was no malice or anger in his words, just an analytical coldness that you had to expect from a detective. Ryoma had to admit, he was glad for it. He didn't think he'd be able to handle the situation had Shuichi not been so good at hiding how he was feeling.

"It didn't cross my mind that I was dooming you and the others to death until after I was being drowned," He admitted, sheepishly looking away as Shuichi frowned at him, giving him a silent look that seemed to say, 'Seriously?'. That was an embarrassing oversight on his part and clearly the other wouldn't let it go as Shuichi followed his prior comment with a statement that caused Ryoma to freeze.

"Was your motive video that unimportant to you?"

He couldn't help but chuckle bitterly. Unimportant was putting it lightly. Well, he was being honest so far, may as well just tell him the truth.

"It was blank."

Shuichi blinked once, then after a moment Ryoma's words sank in and the detective could only raise a hand to his mouth in horror at the implications.

"R-Ryoma..."

"There's nobody out there waiting for me." He looked straight ahead at the door leading to his ultimate lab, but he wasn't focusing on anything. He was staring out at nothing with a dead expression. "Why should I live when I've got nothing to fight for?"

"That's..."

He could see the detective's expression change from horrified to angry. "That's a low blow, even for Monokuma."

Ryoma snorted.

Shuichi was going to say something else, he was sure of it. Probably some sort of preachy bullshit about not throwing your life away and about how precious every minute alive was. He didn't want to hear it and he was glad the detective had decided to be lenient and not pursue the conversation further.

"It's nothing I haven't already had to deal with," Ryoma admitted, finally letting the truth of the whole affair sink in.

Shuichi frowned. "You shouldn't have to deal with it on your own."

Ryoma raised a brow at that, yet before he could reply to Shuichi's comment, a sudden flash of pain in the back of his head reminded him that he did have a somewhat open wound and that they were still sitting in a shower room that was covered in blood, water and vomit. He closed his eyes, wincing at the pain, which Shuichi noticed almost immediately.

"R-Right, you're hurt. We need to get you out of this room." Whether Shuichi was saying that for Ryoma or for himself, the tennis pro couldn't tell, but the hand wrapped around his own pulling him up, brought him back to reality as he glanced at the detective who was standing next to the sink, gingerly holding on to Ryoma with a gentle, yet firm, grip.

"You're going to hold my hand? What are you, my mother?" Ryoma quipped, watching as Shuichi grabbed a key from the side to undo the handcuffs that were biting into his wrists. The metallic cuffs dropped to the floor with a silent crash and he became aware that his breathing had slowed and the pain had somewhat subsided.

Apparently PTSD came in many forms and him wearing handcuffs in a murder situation was one of them.

"You could have a concussion from the blow to your neck. I need to make sure you don't fall over," Shuichi explained quietly, gently tugging at the smaller boy.

Despite his injuries, he noticed that Shuichi was letting him walk and deal with the pain at his own pace, rather than being lifted or carried out of the shower room. He was grateful that the detective knew him well enough to understand that he needed to deal with this himself. He couldn't accept help for something he had agreed to.

They shuffled out of the Shower Room, after a few minutes of Ryoma focusing enough to catch his bearings while walking, and as they emerged they noticed Kirumi sitting idly next to the tennis court's entrance on one of the spectator seats. Kaito was nowhere to be seen, but as Kirumi glanced over to them, they could both see she had regained her composure somewhat. Despite the cuffs, she had managed to sort out her appearance and clean up her face. Such was the skill of the Ultimate Maid.

Although as she glanced over towards the two of them, they could both see that the warm motherly smile that had been a constant over the past few days was no longer there. In it's place was a thin line as she kept her lips tightly sealed, keeping her emotions inside. Had the situation not been so horrific, he might have complimented her poker face.

Ryoma set himself down on the floor by the wall, not bothering to take a proper seat as he let himself slump back against the bricks behind him, glancing over at the Maid before shutting his eyes. He could sense Shuichi was still staring at him, but a few moments later he heard the detective's steps move towards the Maid that was near the door.

Shuichi was probably questioning Kirumi on the incident to get the facts straight. It was his talent after all.

The tennis pro didn't care either way. He'd explained everything from his end to Shuichi in regards to his involvement. He had no desire to revisit the events of just thirty minutes ago and certainly wanted to just forget that it had ever happened.

A few minutes later, he heard the sound of voices in the distance, opening his eyes slightly to glance over at the other two. Shuichi and Kirumi also were glancing towards the hallway door, noting that the voices were getting louder and closer. He couldn't make out any of the words being said but he could hear that some of the voices were angry.

Moments after, the door to the tennis lab swung open and with it, the floodgates opened.

It seemed that Kaito had done just as Shuichi had asked, bringing everyone from the dorms to the Tennis Lab, announcing his arrival with a loud, "I, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars, have brought everyone as you asked, Shuichi!"

The detective in question raised a brow at the rather extravagant announcement before the three who were already in the lab noticed something rather strange. Everyone looked confused.

"Um, Atua wants to know why Kaito interrupted Angie's beauty sleep," The dark-skinned artist asked, voice far too cheerful for anyone's taste.

"And why the fuck is the maid in handcuffs?" Miu asked loudly, the blonde pointing towards Ryoma, who did not want to deal with her right now. "Didn't know you were into that kinky shit, ya bondage gremlin!"

"Please stop talking," Kiyo's hissed darkly, the Anthropologist stepping forwards past the group towards Ryoma's slumped form. He was carrying a first aid kit. "It seems that there is more to this farce than we first thought." Kiyo reached Ryoma, leaning down in front of him with his golden yellow eyes meeting Ryoma's darkened ones. "There is more to this situation indeed."

Shuichi glanced over at Kaito, who was now looking away awkwardly. "Kaito," The detective began, serious voice at the ready. "Just what did you tell them?"

Kaito rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as the rest of the students began to shuffle into the tennis lab, Tsumugi letting out a stifled gasp at the scene while Gonta, noticing the handcuffs, shouted, "Kirumi! Why you wearing handcuffs? Gonta does not understand what is going on!"

The large entomologist turned to Kaito, looking at the Astronaut in complete confusion. "You tell Gonta that this meeting important! What happened?"

"You mean you didn't tell them?" Shuichi stated, looking at Kaito with an exhaustion that clearly stated he was not okay with this.

"What was I supposed to say, bro," Kaito finally answered back, refusing to meet Shuichi's eyes. "Like, I didn't know if they'd get scared if I told them what had happened."

"I must admit, I am confused. Why is Kirumi in handcuffs, why is Ryoma being tended to for a head wound and what is so bad that Kaito couldn't tell us, Shuichi?" Keebo finally asked, the robot pointing to each thing in turn before settling his gaze on the detective.

The ten heads of the new arrivals all turned to Shuichi, each looking expectantly for some sort of answer. But as Kiyo finished tending to Ryoma's head wound with a few bandages and some disinfectant, which stung like hell, it was actually the one person who had caused all of this who decided to speak up.

"I attempted to kill Ryoma."

Kirumi's voice was like a high note that shattered glass and the other students were the glass. For a moment, there was a pause as Kirumi's words sunk in, before the wave of questions began.

"Kirumi, how could you?" Kokichi stated with mock shock. Everyone could see the purple-haired boy was lying, nobody gave his comment the time of day.

"Gonta is shocked. Kirumi, tell Gonta that you are just joking. Please, nobody who likes bugs is bad, right?" Gonta's pleas met deaf ears as Kirumi looked away, refusing to speak any further. Clearly she felt any more information would just be problematic at that point.

"Oh so you guys pity Gonta when he's shocked at Kirumi. But I get ignored when I act shocked," Ouma grumbled silently, just loud enough for those closest to him, Tenko and Maki, to hear.

Surprisingly it was Maki who rose to his bait, stating coldly, "That's just it. You act."

Kokichi's face turned into a devilish grin as he glared back at the care-giver, stating with a singsong voice, "Takes an actor to know an actor."

"Do you want to die?" Maki growled, eyes trained on the serial liar.

Ouma, for what it's worth, reacted like a normal human being and slunk back towards the rest of the group, retreating from Maki with a worried look. Whether he was actually scared of Maki or not, the group couldn't tell but his penchant for lying certainly gave Shuichi reason to doubt his retreat. That was too easy and despite him retreating, it felt like he'd actually come out on top against the caretaker.

"You shouldn't waste your time with a degenerate male like him," Tenko stated to Maki, glaring towards Kokichi who had hidden behind the rather large Gonta.

"Nyeh, you should pray to Atua," Himiko added, Angie nodding in agreement as the trio of girls looked at Maki, Tenko glancing towards the young mage, then to the religious artist, with what could only be described as a jealous frown.

Miu chimed in nervously. It seemed talk about murder had brought out the rather passive side of her personality and she promptly spoke in a panicked voice. "W-W-What the hell? Y-You mean the maid actually tried to kill the fucking cryptid?" She took a step back as Kirumi nodded once more, stumbling into Keebo, who promptly began to blush as she felt herself rub up against his metallic body.

"M-Miu, please, calm down," Keebo whimpered, unable to sound forceful with Iruma's shuffling.

"I'm sure Kirumi has a reasonable explanation for wanting to kill the small degenerate," Tenko said awkwardly, looking expectantly at the maid, missing Ryoma's angry gaze completely. She was looking at Kirumi in the same way that a young child would look to their mother for reassurance. However Kirumi's stern poker face wasn't going to give Tenko the answer she wanted to hear.

"I attempted to kill Ryoma. What more do you need to know to convict me?" As she said this, Ryoma and Shuichi could both hear the sheer exhaustion in her tone. Sure, she wasn't exactly a victim in all of this and had attempted murder, but the resigned look she gave the group was enough to silence everyone's doubts as she let herself sag back into the chair she was on.

Shuichi decided it would be best to ignore this line of questioning. Kirumi could be dealt with later on, but they had more pressing issues that needed to be dealt with. "Everyone," He called out, trying to gather the room's attention, feeling Kaito clamp a hand around his back, giving him an attempt at a reassuring grin. Shuichi wasn't the most confident of the group and while he'd preached to Ryoma about finding the truth, he still wasn't comfortable with the concept. "I actually asked Kaito to bring you here for another reason."

Murmurs began to shift through the group at those words. Ryoma, from the side, could see everyone looking fairly confused, with Kaito, Maki, Gonta, Tsumugi and surprisingly Tenko making furtive glances in his direction every once in a while. It seemed he had more people who were concerned about him than he thought at first. Kiyo leaned to the side of the wall next to him, in between the tennis pro and the maid. He was definitely focused on observing the group as he'd not spoken in quite some time.

"I assume you all brought your motive videos like Kaito asked?" Shuichi called out, various Kub Pads being lifted into the air as proof. Only three people hadn't brought theirs.

Maki, from the back of the room, met Shuichi's look and simply stated, "I didn't think I'd need it. And trust me, I'm not going to commit a murder over it."

Ouma, grinning from ear to ear, stated, "I bet you'd looooove to get a look at my important person Shuichi. Would you believe me if I said it was you?"

Lastly, he was surprised to see that Angie had refrained from bringing her pad, saying, "Atua says that if Angie does not acknowledge the motive then it will not become a problem."

Shuichi wasn't having it though.

"Maki, Kokichi, Angie, can I ask that you go and retrieve your motive videos?" It wasn't a demand, but there was some force behind his words that Ryoma could hear from his spot by the wall.

"And why should I?" Maki replied harshly. Ryoma knew exactly why she didn't want to share her video. As the Ultimate Assassin, having her cover blown was something she was trying to avoid and he wasn't sure just how far she was willing to go to keep that secret. He needed to get Shuichi off of her case for the moment.

"Shuichi," He called out loudly, getting the attention of the detective and the rest of the group. Maki glanced over at him with those cold red eyes and he could see she was thinking about the worst case scenario from a glance. "Don't worry about Maki. I've seen her video, she's fine."

The unreadable expression on Maki's face as she tore her glance away from the group to stare at the floor left Ryoma feeling deeply unsettled, but he pushed it down. The eyes of trained killers were often the hardest to read and Maki had proven that. He had no wish to further entangle himself with her and the baggage that would come with it. Not now.

"Why do you want us to bring our videos here anyway Shuichi?" Ouma playfully asked, eyes narrowing as a harrowing smile formed on his lips. "You don't... plan on watching them, do you?"

The silence that cut across the room at those words was instant, everyone looking to Shuichi once more for the answer he was going to give. The detective, seizing up, was only able to keep standing under that pressure because of Kaito's arm on his back keeping him steady, but he could hear the blood rushing in his ears as he tried to gather his thoughts.

Ryoma frowned from his spot, glancing around the group to see that the trio of Tenko, Angie and Himiko were all muttering worriedly among themselves and he could see the others all starting to look concerned. If Shuichi didn't reply soon, he'd lose their attention and that was the last thing they needed. And if Kaito wasn't going to reassure him beyond a pat on the back, then someone else would have to.

"Shuichi," Ryoma called out again, this time more calmly. "You've got this."

Those few words sparked Shuichi into life, the detective giving a gratefully relieved smile to the tennis pro before turning to face the group. He took a deep breath and Ryoma thought for a moment that he could see a small fire in Shuichi's eyes that wasn't there moments before. Probably the spark of life or something beyond his reach.

"The reason why there was an attack tonight was because of these motive videos." Shuichi lifted up the video belonging to Kirumi, making sure that everyone could see the pad in his hands, before glancing over to Kirumi. "While I really shouldn't have to bother; Kirumi, I'd like your permission to show this video to everyone." The maid gave a short curt nod before turning away once more, resting her cuffed hands in her lap as she chewed on her bottom lip in frustration.

Shuichi turned to the others, giving them all a few moments to take in what was about to happen. "Everyone, brace yourselves, what you are about to learn is... Just watch." He warned, pressing play.

One minute passed.

"What in the actual fuck?! Kimoody is the fuckin big cheese in charge of the whole country?" Miu spat out.

"How on earth could we have been living with somebody so important without any knowledge of their identity!" Keebo exclaimed.

"This is a... surprising development," Kiyo stated from the sidelines, glancing towards the maid with a look of admiration. "Seeing your people being threatened by Monokuma drove out your inner desire to leave this place. Kehehe, seeing how you were drawn to attempt murder, truly this is the beauty of humanity that I witness every day..." Kiyo sounded a little too ecstatic for everyone's liking as he finished his small speech, Saihara giving him a rather bemused smile before another voice interrupted the awkward moment.

"Anywaaaaaay," Ouma said. "You're telling me Mom is actually the Prime Minister!"

"She's not your Mom," Tsumugi muttered. "That's plain to see."

"And  _she_  is sitting right there!" Kaito yelled, making himself known for the first time in a while, looking around at the group that had fallen into chaos at the news. He pointed towards Kirumi, the group turning to the maid, silence once again falling across the group as Tojo met their gazes with her own.

Gonta was the first to speak after Kaito silenced the group with his proclamation, looking at Kirumi with the saddest eyes imaginable. "Kirumi, is it true? Are you really super important like motive video said?"

Kirumi was silent for a few more moments before admitting, "Yes, I am."

"Atua says Kirumi is telling the truth!" Angie announced with a bouncy grin.

Kirumi took a deep breath, not finished with what she wanted to say, pushing aside Angie's words with her own. "I live to serve my country. The video should have taught you that I am famed for performing any and all tasks asked of me." She glanced around at the group. "I was able to complete all of your menial tasks while here at the academy."

That was when her voice took a solemn turn. "However, as a maid, I always have someone relying on my work. Be it my master or my employers. And for me, right now, an entire country rests on my shoulders. It is a burden that I must bear and..." She paused for a moment, choking back what could have been a sob before regaining her composure. "Self-sacrifice is an important part of a maid's job and I must always put my people before myself. So..." Her voice raised, more determined than it was before. "I had to escape! For them, for my people who need me! For the children, the mothers, the widows, the families!"

"And so you decided to target the weakest among us, is that correct?" Kiyo stated, looking firstly to Kirumi, then turning to Ryoma, who nodded.

"She did," He replied quietly. "But that's not the whole story. There's more to this than just Kirumi looking for an escape."

As he said those words, he noticed Shuichi had started staring in his direction with a nervous glance. He knew what Ryoma was going to say but though they had definitely skirted around the idea, confirming it would probably deal a massive blow to the detective's morale and to the group as a whole.

"Earlier tonight, I exchanged my motive video with Harukawa," He said, a few of the group, Kaito included, turning to look at the caregiver who ignored them all, gripping her hair lightly. "I knew she had my motive video and I wanted to watch it."

"Gonta noticed Ryoma seemed very unsure about our idea of not watching the motives," Gonta exclaimed, as if he'd figured something out. "Why were you interested in motives, Ryoma?"

"It's simple really," The tennis pro replied, glancing around at the group. "I assume you all know that the motives contain messages or information about your special people." There were a few nods. "I just wanted to see who was out there waiting for me."

He gave a bitter smile, looking up at the ceiling with a wistful gaze, his voice low and melancholy. "Unlike Kirumi, who's motive was for killing, I wanted my motive to be a reason to live."

"You mentioned that before," Shuichi explained. "When we were running from Gonta earlier, you said you were jealous about the rest of us having such good reasons to live, right?" The detective didn't mention how he already had known about Ryoma's plan to meet Maki from the beginning as he imagined they'd get side tracked too quickly.

"Yeah, that's right. You've all got people out there waiting for you or dreams you want to fulfill. As a guy who's been there, done that and had everything taken from me, I couldn't find myself to be motivated like you all. So I wanted to watch my video to find out who I could fight for." He glanced around the room, making sure everyone was following alone before continuing. "So I got the motive video from Maki like I planned and watched it."

"And that was when I saw you on the other side of the main hall on the third floor," Kaito exclaimed loudly. "I was visiting Maki Roll earlier and I saw you walking back in the direction of your lab."

"M-Maki Roll? I didn't give you permission to give me a nickname!" Said assassin growled.

"You saw me watching my video and didn't try to talk to me?" Ryoma replied at the same time as Maki.

Kaito, getting hit by two pretty rough replies, shrunk backwards with a nervous chuckle, deciding to reply to Ryoma first. "You're not that approachable, y'know..."

"Maki Roll?!" Maki once again exclaimed, taking a step towards the Astronaut.

"H-Hey calm down, Maki Roll, it's just a nicknam-"

"You have no right to cal-"

Ryoma frowned. He didn't want to listen to this. " **Shut** **up!** " He spat out with a lot of vitriol towards Kaito. The astronaut could have actually stopped the whole situation had he just tried to talk to Ryoma there and then, but no. That wasn't how this was going to go. But his comment was... fair. He had told everyone to stay away when he'd first met them and only Shuichi had really decided to ignore that advice.

"Anyway, my video... I think if you watch it you'll understand."

He fished the video out from his jacket, lifting it up for the group to see. He clicked play and the familiar opening loaded up. And then the laughter from Monokuma and the single message that told him he had nobody out there to live for. As the video ended, everyone in the room, even Ouma to some extent, looked shaken.

"So that was why you complied with my wishes so easily," Kirumi breathed out, the composure on her face replaced with what could only be described as a look of utter sympathy. And as he glanced around, most of the other students were looking just as saddened or sympathetic towards him. He didn't want or need it though, he didn't deserve it.

"Don't look at me like I'm some lost pet," He growled lowly. "I chose to let Kirumi knock me out with her broom and I chose to give my life to her so she could escape."

"That doesn't excuse attempted murder," Keebo stated warily.

"I never said it did. But this wasn't an attempted murder." Pulling at his wet beanie, he let it cover his face as he muttered, "It was an assisted suicide attempt."

The atmosphere in the room had been ever changing as the conversation had moved on, but as his words rang out across the group, a new, darker and more twisted feeling began to take root among the students.

"S-Suicide?" Miu stuttered out, clutching at her body like someone had just threatened to hurt her.

"The situation continues to grow more intriguing as more of your secrets begin to unravel," Korekiyo rationalized. "How will the mere mention of suicide affect those of us standing in this very room? I must say I am finding this meeting very helpful towards my own research into the beauty of humanity."

"Not helping, Kiyo," Saihara stated sternly.

Surprisingly, it was Kirumi who cut into the conversation next with a more confident and stern, "I must insist that we all listen to Shuichi's judgement. While I am in no position to take the moral high ground and I have no intention to let my crimes go unpunished, Shuichi has called you here with good reason so that none of you may sully your hands like I tried to tonight."

Ryoma's suicide motive must have shaken her as she hadn't had any interest in contributing to the discussion until she discovered the truth behind his actions. Perhaps she felt guilty for taking advantage of his weakness or she simple wanted to try and atone for her actions, but her words were a much needed foundation for Shuichi to begin his explanation.

"If we watch all of the motive videos, the motives become powerless and we gain the upper hand," Shuichi explained, confidently.

"Buuuuut, we're just playing into Monokuma's hands right? Remember what I said yesterday? Banding together and trying to overcome this situation through the power of friendship-" Ouma made a vomiting sound at the word, as if working together was truly repulsive. "-will only lead to more suffering from Monokuma."

"Kokichi, I don't know what your game plan is, but we're already at a worst case scenario here. If a murder attempt won't convince you guys that we need to all view these motives, I don't know what will." Shuichi was desperate as he glanced around at the group, hoping they had at least come to the same conclusion as him, all the while Kokichi was still glaring daggers at the boy with that cocky smirk that Ryoma wishes he could wipe off his face.

"Gonta doesn't understand much, because Gonta isn't very smart..." Ryoma cringed at that comment. Gonta was smarter than he gave himself credit for and hearing the taller man devalue himself like that wasn't good. "But Gonta believe Shuichi. Everyone should watch motive videos with Gonta!"

"R-Right," Tenko stammered, glaring at Shuichi before turning to the girls of the group. "We have to show those degenerate males that we can get through this as well! If Gonta can watch the videos, so can we! R-Right Himiko?" She glanced towards the magician who looked disinterested in the whole thing. "Himiko?"

"Nyeh, sure... whatever. Anything to get me closer to my warm comfortable familiar dorm room bed." Himiko closed her eyes, swaying from side to side, yawning as she did. The young girl was tired but at least she'd agreed to the terms in her own way.

"Atua says that we will all become stronger if we watch the videos," Angie smiled, although she added, "Though Angie's personal video isn't really important. Atua says we can skip that one."

"We can't just skip a vide-" Kaito began.

"Atua said so, so that is His will," Angie stated, more firmly this time, her eyes boring into Kaito who seized up and backed off.

Kiyo glanced around before stating, "I have no qualms with sharing the motive videos. Seeing how you will all react to the different people waiting for you outside," He missed Ryoma's cold stare as he said that, "It truly is an opportunity to observe you on a greater scale than before."

"It seems you're outvoted, ya fuckin twink ass bitch!" Iruma snorted, pointing at Kokichi.

"Shut up pig. Nobody asked for your opinion," Ouma replied casually.

"P-P-Piiiig," Iruma moaned, almost getting off on the degrading comment. "I-I'm not a dirty stinky pig..."

Shuichi glanced at the inventor with a look that only could be described as worried disgust, glancing around at the group before stating, "We should first pass our motive videos around so we all have our own. Judging by Maki, Kokichi and Angie, they already have their own and we know Kirumi and Ryoma have their own as well."

The exchanging of motive videos was quick and painless, although Kokichi leaned against the wall far away from the rest of the group, rolling his eyes and yawning at the group's attempt to sort things out. Ryoma kept a close eye on him though, making sure not to let the purple munchkin out of his sight. The last thing they needed was Kokichi causing more trouble on an already tense night.

"Okay, so who wants to go first?" Shuichi asked.

* * *

Shuichi breathed a sigh of relief as they finished the final motive video, giving everyone a few minutes to take in just what they had all watched. Shuichi's uncle was his special person and apparently the theme was that everyone in the videos had suffered some sort of accident or misfortune, so while everyone was worried about their loved ones, they at least were all in the same boat regarding their loved ones, which was a small comfort for the group.

Kaito's grandparents were his special people. Himiko and Tenko both had their old Masters on their videos while Gonta had his wolf family and the forest he'd grown up in. Though he didn't understand what was wrong, everyone else had twigged that there was a chance that the forest could have had an accident like a forest fire. Nobody had explained that to the entomologist, Kokichi even having ignored the whole conversation in favour of staying neutral.

Miu had a tech corporation, shocking the whole room as her insufferable bragging actually had something to back it up now. Keebo had his creator, Dr. Idabashi and Tsumugi had her close sponsors and cosplay friends threatened by Monokuma's wrath. Kiyo had seemed the most concerned after watching his motive video for the first time as his sister was his chosen person.

"Sister and I were so very close. She even sewed this entire uniform for my work," He said fondly, looking up at the ceiling with a wistful gaze. "Sister must be missing me terribly and I hope to see her again soon..."

"We'll escape together Kiyo," Shuichi smiled. "And then you'll see your sister again."

"Kehehe, we shall see Shuichi," Kiyo chuckled, although what he said made no sense in context. In fact, his wording sounded pretty suspicious.

Ryoma felt himself dozing off by the wall as the group finally processed everything that had happened and after a short debriefing, Shuichi finally gave the call for dismissal, allowing the group to leave. But as the group began to leave and Ryoma felt himself perk back up, an unlikely person asked a question they had been putting off.

"What about Kirumi?" Angie had asked as they all began to file out of the tennis lab. "If she is handcuffed, she will be unable to make our breakfast tomorrow morning."

Though her reasons were selfish, there was a point to her words. What was going to happen to Kirumi?

"I think we can let her go," Kaito grinned, walking up to Kirumi, who looked up at him with utter confusion across her face. Angie shrugged, taking his words as the truth and skipped out of the room after the rest of the class, who had all left already.

"W-What? I tried to murder Ryoma. I should be punished!" The maid spluttered out, losing some of her composure from the sheer surprise of Kaito's words.

The astronaut shrugged, glancing at the Maid with his patented grin. "I don't think you'll do something like this again, Kirumi. One, it'd be dumb to try murdering someone after everyone knows you'd tried it once before. Two, with the way you act about justice, I'll bet walking around freely is like a punishment since you know you've done something bad. And three, I trust you now and when I trust people, if it goes wrong it's all my fault so why should anyone else worry?"

Ryoma couldn't agree with that logic, walking towards them with his bandaged head, glancing at the maid before stating, "You just trust the woman who tried to drown me?"

"Hey," Kaito frowned, looking at Ryoma. "You were just as guilty in all that right."

He pulled his beanie down in frustration, knowing that Kaito was right about that.

"So like, you don't want to kill yourself now that this has all happened right. So by that logic, Kirumi probably doesn't want to kill anymore either. So there, you can both train harder and work through it," Kaito explained, as if his words were simple and all there was to the complicated situation.

Shuichi was watching from the sidelines, looking at the purple haired astronaut with some admiration over his words. Kaito seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and his ability to rally the students was second only to Kaede who was no longer with them. But he still felt a little wary as he watched Kaito undo Kirumi's cuffs.

"I think you should both try and keep out of each other's way for a few days," Shuichi explained, looking between the maid and the tennis player before giving them both a smile that Ryoma was coming to quite enjoy.

"Then if you may excuse me," Kirumi muttered, moving past the group to her sweeping brush and dustpan that she had left on the ground from when she'd whacked Ryoma. "I have a lot of cleaning to get to. I would rather be alone right now."

Her words were quick and forced, giving the three guys only a few seconds to think about it before she practically shoved them out of the tennis lab before closing the door shut. Ryoma was stunned into silence at her speed and diligence, but after a few moments he shook his head and began to walk away from the room.

"Wait, Ryoma, why not walk back with us?" Kaito asked, speeding up to the tennis pro with Shuichi by his side. "C'mon, it's nighttime and you're banged up. The company wouldn't kill ya, would it."

"Bad choice of words Kaito," He heard Shuichi mutter under his breath.

Ryoma breathed out a large sigh of acceptance before nodding to the pair. "I'm not an idiot," He admitted, looking between the two. "And even if I said no, I doubt you'd leave me alone anyway."

"Damn right!"

Kaito and Shuichi's company on the way back to the dorms was strangely relaxing for the tennis pro. Despite having almost died and having to deal with the drama of the motive videos, the fact that he could walk through the school hallway, idly chatting with two of the other guys about nothing was so surreal.

"Oh yeah, I heard you're playing tennis again!" Kaito announced.

"And who told you that?" He replied, noticing Saihara look away awkwardly. "I see..."

"To be fair, had I not told Kaito, we wouldn't have seen you guys tonight," Shuichi admitted, looking at his feet as he did so.

"Enough of all that depressing stuff!" Kaito huffed. "I've got one thing to say to you Hoshi and you better be honest!"

Ryoma raised a brow, looking up at Kaito, wondering just what important words he had to say this time.

"You, me, the tennis court! I'll beat ya!"

"You couldn't beat your way out of a paper bag. Shuichi can probably play better than you and he's only had one day of practice," Ryoma stated savagely as they emerged from the school doors.

The rest of the students had all returned to their dorms, sans Kiyo who was standing outside the glass doors, observing the trio as they walked back to the lodgings.

"I trust you will all have a good night," Kiyo stated as they walked past, his eyes glancing to Ryoma with intense interest. "Will Kirumi be returning here soon or shall I turn myself in for the night?"

"Do you always wait up for everyone to fall asleep, Kiyo?" Shuichi asked with a nervous smile.

"Why yes. As an anthropologist, it is my duty to observe and understand the traditions and rituals of every day life. And a vital part of anthropology is my observations of live subjects." Kiyo motioned to the three of them, then to the dorms. "While you are all my acquaintances, you are also helpful towards my research."

"Kirumi was cleaning up my lab last we checked. No idea if she's coming back or not, but for some reason I highly doubt it," Ryoma stated quietly. "People like that need time for their heads to settle. I should know..." His voice was melancholy and he pushed open the dorm doors without glancing at the three behind him. "Good night..."

He turned around, glancing over to Shuichi before stating, "Thank you Shuichi. I won't forget your words tonight."

And he meant that. Shuichi had kept him from falling into the pits of his own despair while crumpled against that brick wall in the shower room. Without the detective and his support, he imagined he wouldn't be quite as positive about his life as he was. Such was the influence of the boy that had stuck to him like glue for the past few days.

He slipped into his dorm room without much problem and quickly stripped himself of his clothing. He felt and smelled awful, deciding to have a quick shower before he went to sleep. He didn't expect to feel a surge of cold as he glanced at his bathroom sink, nor did he expect to feel the sick feeling of vomit as he glanced at the toilet bowl.

After his quick shower under the warm water where he stood, letting himself just stew in the heat, for far too long, he found himself curled up in bed and wondering just what was going to happen. Something was telling him that he should have died in that sink, that Kirumi should have gotten away with the murder. And as his eyes drifted shut, he could hear the silent rush of water and the sweeping of a brush in the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, this was a long chapter! I decided to ultimately skip most of the Motive Video stuff and sort of guess what I thought would be on each video. Watching 9 videos that all had a similar story would have been boring but I'm hoping I managed to entertain some of you with this chapter. As the title suggests - Daily Life 1 - This is not the end of the killing game, but perhaps just the beginning.


	3. Daily Life 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT - This chapter contains major spoilers for the end-game of Danganronpa v3. Do not read if you have no finished the game.

_**Chapter 3 - Daily Life 2** _

Tsumugi Shirogane was a woman of many secrets.

As a cosplayer she was, more often than not, taught to play the roles of those who she became when she got into costume. It was rare that she would focus on herself for a change, the woman behind the cosplay and the personality behind the mask. But that woman was not some simple teenage girl with dreams of dressing up like an anime idol. Oh no... Her dreams were larger than the ultimate talent she had bestowed upon herself.

No, for Tsumugi Shirogane, her only dream was too see the story of her Killing Game play out in real time. But that night, her story had derailed.

Slipping into the library in the dead of night, she whipped out a small card from her dress pocket, glancing around to see if anybody was watching her entry, looking for any hidden cameras that may have been placed down. After the incident with Rantaro, she couldn't afford to take her chances and get sloppy when heading through the library's entrance. But Kirumi had been cleaning around the girl's bathroom and she couldn't be seen by the maid otherwise there'd be questions and she didn't think she'd make it out unscathed.

No, the maid would be suspicious and she was already on edge. Just a few hours prior they had found Ryoma and Kirumi in the tennis pro's research lab, Ryoma battered and worse for wear with Kirumi in a pair of handcuffs. Tsumugi played the part of the concerned classmate well, she thought, as she pulled open the bookcase with a quiet rumble. She was glad the library was somewhat soundproofed. Nobody in the class could suspect her and as long as they never found that bathroom passage way into her secret room, she'd never be found out as the mastermind.

However her meticulous planning had gone horribly wrong at some point during the last few days, for there was no way that Kirumi should have stopped murdering Ryoma. That was how she had made the maid in the first place, a determined and strong willed personality who would do anything to escape once she'd learned her motive. An entire country was relying on the maid to escape this place. So what in the hell had caused Kirumi to bug out and stop drowning the tennis pro?

As she slid the card into the reader, making sure to replace the dust that Shuichi had left there in case he decided to check, she slipped into the secret room that she owned, groaning out a, "Well tonight went awful!" The room's lights flickered on, illuminating her pink couches, the glass container for Motherkuma off to the corner, as well as the steel beams above the room that were uncovered to give the room a more industrial vibe.

Plopping herself down on one of the plush pink couches, she let herself lie back, glancing up at the ceiling with a look of annoyance and disappointment. "I had a whole speech planned for when we found Ryoma's body about how upset I was..." She puffed up her cheeks, glancing at the coffee table she had left in the room next to her, noticing that she had left out her papers regarding the running of the killing game.

Tsumugi tore her gaze from her work to far right of the room, her eyes lazily drifting over to the gigantic glass case that stood like a monument. The wires that spread from the case, snaking around the room towards the rest of the school, whirred with slight static and the giant half-finished Monokuma head that sat in the glass case blinked to life, red and blue eyes staring straight ahead.

"Ah, Mistress," The robotic voice whirred, sounding like a more broken static-ridden Monokuma. "It seems that your plan has gone wrong and your motives did not work as intended." Motherkuma was blunt to a fault and hearing from someone else that her plans had failed send a wave of irritation through her.

"I noticed that, Motherkuma," Tsumugi sighed, pushing back her irritation by playing with her dark blue hair as she stared blankly at the robot. It wouldn't do well to get into an argument with something that didn't have an opinion of it's own. "I'm so annoyed. I worked very hard to ensure that everything would run according to plan and they went and ruined my carefully laid chain of events."

Sitting upwards, her frowning face shifted in an instant, her mouth widening as she grinned darkly, her voice lowering to that of a certain teenage fashionista, "Having my plan ruined at the last moment is so despair-inducing."

"So, how are you planning on fixing this mistake of yours, Mistress?" Motherkuma asked curiously, ignoring the personality change. Motherkuma was probably used to her Junko-fangirl personality shifts by this point and without anyone around, Tsumugi was grateful to stop with the high voiced schoolgirl act. "Do you have a plan for what comes next?"

Shirogane shrugged, glancing at her papers. "How the fuck should I know?" She was using Junko's angry personality, narrowing her eyes at the ideas spread out in front of her. "It literally just happened. I need to think about this shit."

Tsumugi frowned once more, wondering just what she was going to do now. She couldn't get Kiyo to kill yet, his motive was meant to be revealed when the third floor opened up after the second class trial. Angie, Himiko and Tenko needed to live another round for dramatic tension as their friendship triangle was good at keeping the young girl viewership. And with Ryoma and Kirumi so fresh from the murder attempt, she wouldn't be able to touch them without someone seeing. She was sure that Ryoma would be kept under careful watch after he admitted he was trying to off himself and Kirumi was never intended to be a victim in the first place.

Shuichi was vital to her plans as without Kaede's strong personality there was nobody who could solve the mystery of the school at the end of the season, and Maki and Kaito's love subplot was such an important plot point that she needed to focus on to ensure there was an overarching narrative. Miu couldn't die before the computer room was revealed otherwise there'd be nobody to edit the programme and take advantage of it and Kokichi was the villain of the group that brought the entertainment. She couldn't kill Keebo either since the audience would be pissed that she'd taken out their audience insert before they'd even had time to do something fun.

That left Gonta as the only possible candidate to die. She could probably take him out without causing too much trouble. Hell, she could probably edit the story so Ryoma or Kirumi could take Gonta's original killer status in the fourth class trial and swap them out.

She sifted through the many papers and notes that she had spread on the coffee table, feeling a wave of nostalgia as she looked over the notes that documented her time spent thinking up this entire killing game. She had every murder down to a tee, every possible outcome charted that she had helmed from the get go... Well, almost every possible outcome.

She was the mastermind of this killing game, and yet when one thing went wrong in the system, she found herself scrambling to fix it.

She then ran into another snag. Who would kill Gonta though? Everyone was vital as a character to later cases, herself included, so somewhere she'd need to cut someone's story short and still figure out a way to get the result she wanted. But who's story could she cut short? Everyone was important in some way or another and she didn't want to shirk on her overall narrative idea.

"Motherkuma, I'm going to head to bed," She finally announced after an hour of coming up with absolutely nothing. She needed time to think on this and figure out just what she wanted to happen. She was the author of everyone's destinies and she was going to make sure the show went on with a bang. As the showrunner of Danganronpa V3, it was up to her to ensure the audience got a good show.

She slipped out of the library door, leaving the hidden room in a quiet silence once more, huffing silently to herself about her predicament. And as the lights began to dim in the hidden room, Motherkuma's eyes glinted in the darkness.

"Understood. Activate back-up plan Beta."

* * *

Sleep was something that Ryoma Hoshi found to be quite difficult throughout the last few years.

When you murder a group of mafioso's in cold blood and step through their rotting gutted bodies with no remorse, it tends to leave some small psychological scarring. When you arrive home to find your entire family including your mother, father and siblings slaughtered and massacred, unrecognizable and roughed up, it tends to leave some pretty hefty psychological scarring. Hell, being on death row and having to listen to the sobs of condemned men who were sentenced to death for their crimes was pretty taxing on the mind as well, especially when trying to sleep.

But nothing could have prepared Ryoma Hoshi for the nightmares that would follow his near-death experience.

One moment, he was sleeping soundly, too exhausted to even think about dreaming anything up. The next, he's feeling the cold water wrap around his throat and force itself into his open mouth. He feels himself thrashing around, hands cuffed together, burning into his wrist like pieces of hot iron.

He feels his arms being scratched along the rough stone surface of a sink, feeling blood dripping in spades from his limbs like they'd been completely cut open. And all his eyes could see was a swirling darkness encompassing his every movement, threatening to choke him as everything blurred together in a cacophony of fiery pain and the sensations of death.

The sound of the bells tolling for his demise could be heard, dull rings that echoed in his head, threatening to burst his drowning eardrums when-

**DING DONG! DING DONG!**

Ryoma's eyes snapped open, pushing himself upwards from his pillow with a panicked look stricken across his face. His breathing was tense and fast, coming out as choked gasps as he moved his hands to his face and throat, feeling no pain or anything out of the ordinary.

He looked at his arms alarmingly, checking his wrists for any marks but the handcuff marks he thought to be burned into his skin had already faded into small blemishes, hardly noticeable unless you were really looking hard. Lastly, his eyes glanced down to his arms and legs, expecting to see sharp cuts in the skin. But nothing.

"Geez..." He mutters to himself, placing a hand to his forehead to steady his vision. That dream had been... disturbingly realistic.

He heard a faint crackling sound, glancing up to see that the morning announcement had just finished playing. He'd been so caught up in his own head that he'd missed the Monokubs and their creepy announcement for the students to wake up.

Come to think of it, he'd woken up extremely late anyway. Normally he was up at six, ready to work in the prison yard in an attempt to try and get a lessened sentence on grounds of good behavior. It was rare that he'd ever wake up later than usual, but the circumstances certainly weren't normal. He had almost died, after all.

Shifting off the bed, he moved to his closet and grabbed an outfit to wear, slipping on the black and blue prison clothes that the people running this game had, so generously, provided for him. He made sure to fit the shackle that was always around his left leg into position, lest he incur the wrath of Monokuma. Apparently it was a part of his look given he was the Ultimate Prisoner as well.

Slipping on his black jacket, he finally began to feel somewhat comfortable, glancing in the mirror on his wall to look at his reflection for a moment. His skin was paler than usual and he thought he could see the start of a few black bags under his eyes. His rosy cheeks were also quite toned down compared to their usual look and he had to wonder just how badly the night before had affected him.

He still had the bandage on from the night before and he despite having worn it in the shower before he'd went to sleep, he didn't feel like taking it off just yet. He knew how bad cuts and wounds could get and until he got the okay from Kiyo, who seemed the most skilled at first aid in the group, he'd probably leave it there.

Grabbing a beanie from his drawer, he slipped it on, letting the familiar sign of the tennis logo show on front, his little spikes sticking out like cat ears as he tried to feel some semblance of comfort with being able to dress like normal. Finding some normality was vital in recovering from trauma, that was something he'd learned long ago. So he needed to just... be normal.

The sharp tone of his doorbell ringing brought him out of his thoughts.

He'd never actually had his doorbell ring but he couldn't say he was surprised when he shifted open the door a crack to see the black haired detective standing wistfully on the other side. Shuichi glanced down at him with a warm gaze, yet the Tennis Pro couldn't bare to meet those olive eyes as he glanced everywhere but at the detective.

"What do you want?" He asked quietly, inwardly flinching at the coldness of his question.

"You weren't at the cafeteria," Shuichi replied. "I came to see if you were alright, y'know." Shuichi sounded sincere at least, although he was speaking a lot quicker than usual. Was there something on his mind?

"I'm fine, thanks," He muttered, slipping out of his room and sliding the door shut behind him with a silent click. "I'll head over there now."

Shuichi's eyes lit up as he said, "I'll go with you," his reply coming across a little too quickly. Ryoma could tell the detective was worried, perhaps about his mental state after the suicide attempt. It was standard procedure to keep people with suicidal tendencies on a suicide watch and they (being Shuichi and Kaito) probably thought they were doing a good deed by keeping an eye on him.

But it only made him all the more aware of what he'd tried to do and what they were afraid he could do in the future, even if he himself had no interest in ending his life for the foreseeable future. One near-death experience was enough to tell him he wanted to live at least on a basic level.

"I'm fine," He stated coldly and forcefully, wanting nothing more than to just be alone with his own company for the moment. He stepped past the shocked detective who did nothing to stop the tennis pro's actions.

Inside, he felt angry at himself about how he was treating Shuichi. The night before, he had taken comfort in Shuichi's presence in the shower room, the detective having done his very best to unify the students and keep him feeling comfortable and, more importantly, sane during the whole ordeal. Saihara hadn't needed to get involved with him over the past week, nor did he need to comfort him the night before, but he had.

And Ryoma couldn't bear the guilt that had built itself up inside of him at the fact that everybody knew what he had done. And that he'd selfishly tried to condemn everyone with his would-be assailant.

He slipped out of the cold dormitories and into the morning sunlight, glancing up at the clear blue skies with a melancholic sigh. The fresh air was cool on his skin and he could smell the dew on the blades of grass that littered the lawn that spread out around the school grounds. Glancing up towards the school itself, he could see the Exisals working on another floor of the main building, but it was still under deep construction. How they were able to complete floors like they did in such a short time was a technical marvel on their part and he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out how they did it.

Not that it really mattered, but it raised more questions about who set this whole place up. Was it the Ultimate Hunt like some of the group thought?

Brushing aside his thoeries, he stepped out from under the shade of the dorm's entrance, reaching into his pocket to pull out a candy cigarette. He found himself strolling towards the main doors of the school, deciding that he'd take Shuichi's advice and head for the dining hall. Normally everyone would use the side entrance to the dining hall since it was quicker and more scenic, but as he found himself standing in front of the large wooden doors, he felt a shudder go down his spine that felt like anticipation. Something about the school felt... off to him. And after his near-death experience, he felt he was seeing the crazy school in a new light.

It was no paradise on earth like Angie claimed, nor was it a normal school building like Keebo tried to emphasize. No, the whole place was a death trap, built to hold the Killing Game and built as a ground for a war, the killings being the battles.

He wanted no part in those battles and certainly no part in the war.

With great trepidation, he pushed open the heavy doors, slipping inside to see the dark-skinned Angie Yonaga sitting by one of the benches in the entrance hall, deep in prayer with her eyes closed. He took a few steps, not wanting to attract her gaze or attention, but just as he was heading through the western exit towards the dining hall, he heard the tell tale sing song voice of the artist call out, "Yaha, Ryoma!"

Trying his best to keep his face as neutral as possible, he turned around slowly, bringing his hand up to his beanie to pull it down a bit. Her piercing eyes were watching his every move as she bounced up towards him, her yellow coat swaying side to side. "Do you need something?" He asked, looking her up and down.

She smiled. "I just wanted to say how happy I am to see that you are awake and feeling better." For a moment, he thought Angie was actually trying to be nice. But then she continued her sentence. "Atua says that suicide is a sin and is selfish, you know."

The bite in her words wasn't lost on him as he muttered a quiet, "I don't believe in that stuff, it doesn't bother me what anybody else thinks."

"Atua is sad to hear that," Angie frowned, bobbing her head back and forth as she looked Ryoma up and down. "But if you just think about it, Atua can help you solve all your problems and live a peaceful life. You just need to accept him!" She gestured at the air around her with a grandiose raising of her arms.

"I'm not interested," Ryoma barked darkly back, turning away, pulling his beanie down further. "You can believe what you want, but god or no god, he's never made himself known to me. Nor would he care for the shell of a man who's future is out of reach."

In truth, Ryoma had once considered himself a religious man. When he still had a promising tennis career, a family and his lover, he would often pray to god for granting him happiness. He wasn't that good at keeping up with his prayers, but the concept of religion hadn't bothered him. But after he ruined the underground tennis tournament that the mafia had held and made enemies with some powerful people, he'd prayed for his family's safety. He'd prayed that his lover would be able to escape them.

But when he stepped across their bloodied bodies and found their corpses strung up at his home, when he found his lover sprawled out across the motel bedroom, gutted like a fish, he knew that there was no god on earth who was watching over him or his family. There was no divine punishment coming for the ones who had caused him pain. There was no mystical force that would strike down those responsible for ruining his life. Because winning that match had ruined his life and he was accountable for every consequence that followed.

So instead, he took that punishment into his own hands and carved his own revenge in a steel tennis ball dyed with scarlet red, the whisperings of Killer Tennis being his mantra.

"Well, if you ever change your mind," Angie laughed, breaking the boy out of his thoughts.

"Not gonna happen," Ryoma muttered, walking away from the artist with a grim frown on his face from those memories he'd been forced to remember, flat out missing the dark expression that crossed Angie's face as he turned the corner of the hall.

He stalked towards the dining hall, stepping on a few stray weeds that littered the floor of the unfinished school, glancing around at the prison that they were trapped in with discomfort and disgust. He could see why Kirumi had wanted to escape this place so badly. The broken walls and overgrown floors were not pleasant in the slightest. And the barbed wire windows were pretty draining to look at too.

Then, as he was about to turn the corner to the dining hall, a pair of voices met his ears and he quietly stopped walking, standing just by the edge of the corner of the wall, so he'd stay out of sight. He didn't feel like talking to anyone else after his experience with Angie, but the hushed voices put him on high alert as he pressed himself against the wall.

He couldn't help but wonder why anyone would talk in hushed voices. It meant that it was a conversation that they didn't want overheard, and in a Killing Game that was extra concerning. After seeing how secret discussions and meetings in the night had affected his own situation the night before, what with him meeting with Harukawa and Kirumi without anyone else around, he was a little hesitant to trust whoever it was. Was someone planning a murder? Was he walking in on something bad?

Biting the bullet, he took a quick peek around the corner, and he breathed a small sigh of relief as he could see Himiko and Tenko both standing near the door to the warehouse, the young magician looking rather worryingly towards the large door, then up to the taller girl, who was trying to comfort the smaller one. "Geez," He muttered quietly, deciding to just walk out now that he could see who was talking.

He doubted either of them were planning anything sinister out of everyone in the school.

"You really should practice Neo-Aikido with me, Himiko!" Tenko whispered excitedly as he walked down the hall towards the dining hall, passing by the school store.

"But that's such a pain," The young magician frowned, the whining in her voice extra prevalent that morning.

"But you want to be in tip top shape for your magic show today, right?" Tenko pointedly asked, hands now on her hips as she looked at the young girl before her with an exasperated expression.

That was news to Ryoma though. He didn't know they were planning on hosting a magic show today. Then again, he wasn't exactly in the loop about current events. He hadn't gone to the dining hall the day before so he imagined they'd announced it while he wasn't there. And with all the drama surrounding the motives, he'd only gotten the chance to talk to Shuichi when they had hung out in his lab.

"W-Well..." Himiko looked down, trembling like a leaf. She clutched at her magician's hat, glancing up at Tenko, confused.

"Himiko," Tenko whispered, now bending down to look the smaller magician in the eyes, pushing up her hat slightly. "It's okay to be nervous, you know. Your magic is so cool and powerful, you'll do great later."

The magician couldn't help but crack a bit, the corners of her mouth curling upwards ever so slightly, which Ryoma could see was causing Tenko's excitement to boil over. The faint red blush on her cheeks also didn't go unnoticed to Ryoma, although Tenko hadn't seen it by her reactions. But then Himiko's eyes noticed the movement behind the martial artist, noticing the tennis pro as he awkwardly looked away, moving to enter the dining hall before they could stop him.

Tenko glanced backwards, noticing Himiko's odd look, seeing Ryoma moving to push the door open. He was expecting her to launch into some comment about how much of a degenerate he was for basically eavesdropping on the pair and not announcing that he was there or even saying good morning. So when she asked, "Good morning, are you feeling alright?" He almost had to do a double take.

"Excuse me?"

"What? Can't I ask a degenerate male if he's alright every once in a while?" Tenko frowned, her words sounding more playful than malicious as she gave him a look he couldn't quite place.

"Right... Sorry..." He muttered, looking away awkwardly. "I'm fine, thanks..."

But Tenko wasn't having that. She crossed her arms. "That's it? That's all you have to say?"

"I don't know what else you want me to say," Ryoma replied coldly.

"Something that sounds more believable..." The two glanced towards the magician, who's voice cut through their own with surprising ease. The red-haired girl was giving Ryoma that look of pity that he really didn't want right now, especially since he wasn't exactly innocent, but her words had a slight harshness to them that he was surprised the magician could muster. She wasn't exactly the most expressive of the group.

"You think I'm lying?" He stated, looking Himiko in the eyes as she pulled down her hat, Ryoma pulling his beanie down at the same moment.

"If Himiko says you're lying, then you're lying!" Tenko proclaimed, both of the smaller students giving her a warning glare, from beneath their respective head-gear, to lower her voice. Jumping backwards with a look of fear in her eyes, she gave a sheepish smile to Himiko, muttering a quiet, "I'll stop, just please don't curse me Himiko."

"You look like a mess," Himiko said bluntly, gesturing to Ryoma, who gave her an odd look, Tenko gazing at him now as well. Last he checked in the mirror, he was fine aside from the bandage wrapped around his head that was sticking out from the back of his beanie, as well the slightly paler skin from the stress of the night before.

Himiko rolled her eyes as she noticed him feeling his bandage before stating, "Like, emotionally or something. It's a pain to explain, but..." She put a hand to her chin in thought, as if trying to figure out what she wanted to say next. And then she was lost in thought, trying to figure something out, almost like a smaller version of Tsumugi when she tried to get people to ignore her.

"I think Himiko's trying to say that your head's still where it was yesterday," Tenko thought aloud, glancing back at the magician, who gave her a small nod. "You know, Neo-Aikido is good for training one's body and soul. Normally I wouldn't invite a degenerate to come train with me, but I could make an exception." She didn't seem like she was voluntarily saying these words, more like it was an obligation.

"I think I'll pass," He muttered.

"Just like a degenerate to say no to a woman when she's offering you help and advice!" Tenko growled in anger. She seemed ready to punch him, which was his cue to get the hell out of there.

"And trust me, I'm not planning on offing myself at the moment, regardless of how I feel right now," He grumbled, pulling his beanie down. "I wouldn't do something so uncool at this point and inconvenience everyone again."

Neither of the girls seemed convinced by his words, but if they wanted to say anything else, they weren't acting on it. Ryoma gave a small sigh before pushing open the dining hall door, Himiko's voice calling out as he did, "You should come to my magic show later. They're great at making people smile." She seemed actually enthusiastic about her offer as he closed the dining hall door behind him, shutting the two girls out.

With Himiko's offer still on his mind, he glanced around, finding the hall to be surprisingly empty of any students. Everyone had probably had breakfast already if Shuichi's words from earlier on were anything to go by. He was glad, for a moment, that he wouldn't have to face any more of his classmates, that morning, slipping in to the kitchen to grab something to eat. Just a quiet breakfast and a retreat back to his room.

That was when he froze up, the figure in the kitchen turning towards him with a slight muffled gasp.

He'd be lying if he said he was looking forward to hashing things out with Kirumi Tojo. And to be blunt towards his own involvement, he didn't hold everything that had happened the night before against her, but what he did know was that she had taken advantage of his weakness to further her own plan of escape. And sure he'd turned his back when he went to pick up the tennis balls, but she was the one who took action and swung the broom. She could have stopped before the issue had even begun, instead deciding to show her killing intent and proving that she wasn't as trusted as they had all first thought.

The maid had been cutting up some carrots on the far side of the kitchen as he entered, but as she became aware of his presence, her actions stopped as she turned, raising her gloved hand to her mouth in silent surprise as her eyes met his own for a second, Ryoma looking down as they made contact. He could feel her eyes now watching him warily as he moved through the room. She probably wasn't expecting him.

"Good morning," He muttered quietly as he passed her counter, refusing to meet her gaze as he hurriedly prepared a bowl of cereal in the hopes that he could escape that kitchen as soon as possible without causing any more of a fuss.

She didn't reply back, instead choosing to give a small nod of acknowledgement. In some ways, that was better since she didn't want to talk either, but that also meant the silence was unbearable as he poured the cereal and milk into a bowl, grabbing a spoon from the cutlery drawer.

The atmosphere was almost suffocating as he grabbed his finished bowl of cereal and headed for the exit, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. The tension made it tough to even breathe properly and after actually almost drowning and feeling the air sucked out of his lungs, he didn't have to imagine very hard to think about what the suffocating feeling felt like.

His hands trembled as he stepped out of the kitchen, making his way over to the large table dining table where he took the seat furthest away from the kitchen window, but not before hearing a small sigh of relief come from the other room. A few moments later and the sound of cutting started up again, although it was louder than when he'd come into the dining hall the first time.

They both needed more time to process this.

The trembling in his hands continued as he quickly ate his breakfast, trying not to focus on the sounds of cleaning and cooking that were coming from the kitchen. He'd wanted normalcy when he'd woken up and he just wanted a quiet morning to reflect on what had happened to him. His encounter with Kirumi had shattered that illusion and ensured that the rest of his day would be tinged with confusion, guilt and regret.

The funny thing about the whole situation was that he'd been in prison before he came to this school, so naturally he'd been in the presence of other murderers, like himself, and much worse when it came to the inmates he'd met. But it was different interacting with Tojo, who had so rationally came up with the rather elaborate plan to snuff out the lives of everyone here. And then with that ruthlessness, his mind flashed back to her horrified face when she'd stopped trying to drown him.

Perhaps this was how the family of the mafia members that he'd killed had felt when they saw him during his trial in court. How he felt towards Kirumi was that of a victim to the killer, despite no killing having taken place.

He brushed away his thoughts, wanting nothing more than to just empty his mind, blocking out the cooking sounds and his own problems for a few moments to finish his breakfast.

It was only as his bowl of cereal emptied and he'd eaten the food in front of him, that he realized he had no plan for the day. He had no intentions of going anywhere near his Ultimate Lab while the actions from the night before were still fresh and the last thing he wanted to do was have to deal with people. He'd wanted a quiet day in his room and while he certainly wasn't in a good mood, being alone in a safe space seemed preferable.

Leaving the bowl on the table, he knew that Kirumi would clean it up and he'd rather not approach the kitchen again. But just in case, he called out, "I left my bowl on the table." She didn't want to speak to him, but if he at least made some sort of an effort, he might actually get somewhere with it.

He headed to the outside door that led onto the front porch, slipping it open with a silent hope that he wouldn't run into anymore of the girls.

Well, he'd ran into Angie, Tenko, Himiko  **and** Kirumi, so why not add the rest of the girls to that equation, for it was just his luck that the weird pair of Tsumugi and Iruma were both sitting on the front porch outside, as if there to be right in his way of getting back to the dorms.

The blue haired cosplayer, waving around a small cup of water, seemed to be chatting excitedly to a rather uninterested Miu, the blonde inventor making sharp glances towards the dormitories at semi-regular intervals, as if she was waiting for someone to come and save her from the nightmare of plain Tsumugi.

Whatever the case, he didn't want to talk with them and, for the second time that day, tried to walk past a pair of students without them noticing him, not even bothering to eavesdrop on the pair.

And once again, he was not lucky enough to go unnoticed.

He figured Iruma would be the one to call him out, given her need to insult everyone in the school at least once a day and her penchant for making sexual innuendos regarding his height, but he was surprised to hear the high-pitched plain voice of Tsumugi calling to him. "Ah, Ryoma, do you have a minute?"

_No, I don't._ Is what he wanted to stay, but instead, deciding that maybe a more tactful and normal approach was needed, he muttered a, "Yeah, what's up?"

"Well, it's plain to see that everyone's in low spirits today," Shirogane explained, giving him a pitiful stare as she said those words. He didn't dignify the look with a response aside from the slight roll of his eyes that he knew she'd noticed. The last thing he needed was pity from blue-haired girl. "So... I thought maybe I could whip up some cosplay for everyone to try on and raise everybody's spirits."

"And then I said no fucking way, I ain't getting dressed up like some prissy bitch out of one of her hentai films!" Iruma spat out, hands on her hips. She was scowling at the cosplayer, but her words weren't as aggressive as they normally were. Perhaps Tsumugi had insulted Miu before he'd even arrived.

"Not all anime happens to be hentai, Miu. That's such a western ideology!" Tsumugi huffed, folding her arms in annoyance. "But it would be so much fun to maybe have everyone dress up in cosplay for a day. We could even have a party in the gym!" The fires of passion in her eyes were burning as she said this, looking to Ryoma for some sort of back-up against the inventor.

"I don't have time to play dress-up," He muttered, flicking a candy cigarette into his mouth. She had called him over for a cosplay party? Did he look like the sort of person who would dress up for a party? It all sounded like a trivial way of passing the time until someone else inevitably ended up dead from one of Monokuma's motives.

"See, the blowjob dwarf gets it!" Miu cackled, Ryoma sending her the darkest gaze he could muster. "I-I mean, it's not like e-everybody wants to dress up. We-We've all good stuff ta do, y'know."

"It's not dress-up though," Tsumugi stated plainly. "Cosplay is an amazing experience as you get to be someone else for a little while and forget about your troubles. Don't we all need a break?"

"It sounds like escapism to me," He replied, noticing an unnaturally dark frown forming on Shirogane's features at the word 'escapism.'

It seemed he'd touched some sort of nerve as Iruma shrank back into one of the deck chairs, moving out of the conversation as Tsumugi, now more passionately, launched back towards Ryoma with her own rebuttal. "Never call cosplay an escape. That's like saying that Death Note is a slice of life anime! Escapism is when you're purposefully trying to escape life like some sort of Otaku. But my cosplays are not for Otakus." She paused for a moment, letting some of her anger go before explaining, "I had to work hard for all of my sponsors and my cosplays. It's not an easy job to do."

Ryoma shrugged it all off, Tsumugi now looking down at the tennis player with an inner rage that could only be described as the ravings of an upset fangirl. He couldn't be bothered to argue about the semantics of the situation, and while shrugging off her entire backstory was pretty harsh by his standards, he just didn't care, instead deciding to try and move the conversation along with a concrete answer to her proposal. "Tsumugi, it doesn't change the fact that I'm not interested in dressing up."

"Maybe you don't want to cosplay," Tsumugi frowned to Ryoma, then glaring to Miu. "But at least I'm trying to come up with ideas to make everyone smile." Just like Himiko, Tsumugi was trying to get everyone to smile and have fun. She just wanted everyone to get along, but Ryoma just couldn't get behind that after his experiences.

With a bitterness that he didn't realize he was holding in, he muttered back to Tsumugi, "And what exactly is there to smile about in this situation?"

His words hung in the air for a moment as he stalked off, refusing to look the two girls in the eyes as he tore his gaze towards the path leading to the dorms. Tsumugi, clearly upset with his words, stomped her feet and stormed back into the dining hall, looking like Ryoma had just stabbed her best friend. Perhaps that wasn't far from the truth though given how much she loved anime and manga.

"H-Hey, guys, wait a minute..." Miu muttered out silently as she was left alone on the porch to her own devices. She seemed a little concerned about something, but Ryoma couldn't care less.

Ryoma didn't bother to look back. He didn't need her sexually frustrated insults at the moment, or ever for that matter.

The morning had been a disaster so far. Angie wanted him to join her cult, Himiko and Tenko both thought he needed help or to talk about his feelings or something. Tsumugi was unusually confrontational and any conversation with Miu left him feeling bitter. But just seeing Kirumi in the kitchen had dampened any good vibes he'd tried to build up.

Deep inside, he knew he was the problem here. His bitter replies and his attitude were awful, but if there was a day where he couldn't help it, it'd be that day.

"Oh heeeeey, it's you," The voice of the devil said.

His eyes glanced up from the ground, coming out of his thoughts to see the equivalent of Satan on Earth, Kokichi Ouma, standing there in his bright white straight jacket coat and checkered necktie, with a childish smile plastered on his face.

"What do you want?" Ryoma growled.

The last thing he needed was this manipulative kid getting in his head.

"Awww, can't a guy say hello to his friend in the morning?" Ouma whined.

"I'm not your friend," Ryoma spat, stalking past the boy without a second thought.

"Wha- How could you say that Ryoma." He cried out mockingly. "First Shuichi ditches me and now you too!"

The detective's name was enough to stop him in his tracks for a moment. Anything involving Ouma had to be bad and as much as he'd tried to ignore the detective earlier on that morning, he still gave a damn about Shuichi enough to know that anything involving Kokichi that happened couldn't be good.

"Shuichi ditched you?" He asked pointedly, feeling irritation beginning to rise in the pit of his stomach.

Kokichi gave him a wide grin, like a cat would to a mouse that had just fallen into it's trap. "Wouldn't you like to know," He muttered, holding his arms behind his head casually."Does Ryoma want to know why Shuichi was upset with me?"

"What did you do?" Ryoma asked darkly. Kokichi's dancing around the answer was seriously beginning to piss him off.

Ouma frowned. "Accusing me isn't very nice. And for your information, I did nothing to him." And then his face darkened, a demonic grin forming across his lips as his voice dropped into a silent growl. "But I guess I can explain the story to you..."

"You've got ten seconds, Kokichi," Ryoma muttered darkly, clenching his fists.

"Fiiiine," The boy replied. "So, we were all at the dining hall and I was asking Mom for more food. You know how Mom is, she'll do literally anything as a request for us." Every time Kokichi said Mom, he felt his face wince. He was talking about Kirumi. "So while I was waiting, I tried to talk with Mom, but she's been really quiet this morning. So I thought, if she won't speak to me normally, I may as well..." He paused for a moment, that shit-eating grin crossing his face again. "... Ask her about last night."

Ryoma tensed up at that, feeling his patience seriously beginning to wear thin with the boy. Kokichi was clearly trying to piss him off... And it was working.

"You know, I was really curious about one specific thing last night." The right side of his mouth curved upwards into a lopsided grin, narrowing his eyes on Ryoma in amusement. "All I asked was how it felt attempting to drown someone."

Ryoma had moved before Kokichi could continue, a loud smacking sound filling the air as the tennis pro, out of pure irritation, sucker punched the trickster right in the stomach. He was seeing red, so frustrated with everything that had gone on that morning and how his nice normal day had to be ruined by Kokichi fucking Ouma and his fucked up curiosity. And all he could feel was a burning anger inside of him with the only outlet being to punch the damn supreme leader as hard as he could, figuring he'd be doing the damn campus a civil service.

Kokichi stumbled back from the tennis pro's impact, clutching at his stomach with an angry grimace now plastered on his face and Ryoma couldn't help but feel satisfied that he'd actually managed to surprise the bastard and catch him off of his guard for once. Kokichi had that one coming to him for a long time.

"You don't get to ask how it felt," He coldly hissed, turning away from Kokichi's heavily breathing form.

He expected some sort of threat. But when he heard the chuckling, his blood ran cold. It was coupled with a coughing fit, but that unmistakable chuckle sent another wave of irritation through his body as he heard Kokichi's arrogant voice call out to him. "As expected from a convicted murderer. Looks like all that time in prison gave you a preeetty short fuse." Kokichi straightened himself out, taking a few cautionary steps back from the tennis pro.

"You don't know anything about me." Ryoma could feel himself shaking uncontrollably, wanting to smack the boy in his damn jaw this time, maybe even dislocate it. He had no idea what prison was like or the hell that Ryoma had to endure. The shit he'd had to deal with, the things he'd had to do to survive that.

Kokichi smirked. "I do know that you're thinking about punching me again. Maybe even about seriously injuring me, riiight?" Ouma grinned, that menacing stare piercing the tennis pro before he could even reply. "And that you'd probably kill me if you got the shot, right?"

That was when Ryoma realized just what the hell he was doing. His trembling began to subside as the gravity of the situation had just began to sink in. He'd been thinking about seriously hurting Ryoma. Even after being convicted of murder, his thoughts still turned to violence when it came to the lying bastard in front of him. He'd promised Shuichi the day before, when they were on the court, that he wanted to change.

But this wasn't change.

What the hell was he doing, getting so worked up over what Kokichi thought of his past. Since when did he care what others had to think about his own circumstances. They were his and his alone. Damnit... Things were not alright.

"Everyone has their breaking point," Kokichi teased as he began to saunter away towards the dining hall. "I wonder what yours is, Ryoma?"

And with that, Ryoma found himself alone on the garden path. His whole world seemed to swirl around him, his eyes glazed over as he tried to figure out what the heck had just happened. He hadn't lost it like that since... Since the day he found his lover splayed out across the motel bedroom that they were staying in, sheets died with scarlet blood.

"Fuck..." He muttered, feeling himself beginning to tremble for a completely different reason. His legs felt like jelly and he found that the contents of his stomach suddenly didn't want to stay down there anymore. A flash of blood, his lover's gutted body, the feeling of his lungs burning and water all around him.

Ryoma found himself dry-heaving into the shrubbery on the side of the path.

Things were not alright.

Ten minutes later, the urge to vomit began to quell itself as Ryoma felt himself collapse onto the path with a defeated sigh. For the first time in his life, he wasn't feeling in control of his own urges. He didn't want to vomit, he didn't want to remember the night before. He definitely didn't enjoy the constant flashes that he'd been feeling or the dread that he got when he thought about water.

"Ryoma? Is that you Ryoma?"

He glanced to his right, head lolling on the grass as he noticed the rather large form of Gonta Gokuhara striding towards him with his large brown suit and shoe-less feet. The large, muscle-bound giant of a man's brow furrowed in worry as he pushed back his glasses slightly. "Hi Gonta," Ryoma muttered, wincing in pain as he felt his stomach was painfully empty once more.

"Is Ryoma alright? Did someone hurt Ryoma?" Gonta looked extremely concerned, leaning down to lift the tennis pro up off of the ground. He put Ryoma into a sitting position before giving the small boy a small smile. "There, now Ryoma isn't on the floor."

"T-Thanks," He stuttered, unable to catch the weakness in his voice before Gonta could hear it.

"Is Ryoma alright? Do you need rest?"

"I'm fine, really Gonta," He replied awkwardly, trying to bite back any anger or bitterness. Out of everyone, Gonta definitely deserved it the least. He was a true gentleman, both in title and quite literally, a gentle man.

"Oh, that's good. Gonta was searching for bugs, because bugs escape from Gonta's lab after Insect Meet and Greet." The entomologist glanced around the grass and the surrounding areas, Ryoma then noticing the small bug catching net that looked hilariously undersized for Gonta's height, in his hand.

Ryoma gave the large boy a small smile, deciding to be nice to someone at least. "I'm sure you'll find them, big guy. You've still got a ways to go, but I'm sure you'll find them."

Gonta gave the smaller boy a smile, Ryoma pulling his beanie down from the smile, feeling a little awkward in front of the large man.

And then Gonta couldn't help but stifle a gasp, launching upwards, net outstretched. Ryoma felt the net swing over him, wrapping itself over his head as Gonta shouted out, "Ryoma, do not move!"

His body tensed up as he wondered just what the hell had happened. Thoughts began racing through his head as he tried to figure out why Gonta had been so panicked.

But he breathed a sigh of relief as the net released and Gonta pulled a small navy blue butterfly off of one of Ryoma's beanie's spikes. "There was bug on Ryoma. Gonta needed to catch it."

"Geez, you could have warned me first," Ryoma chuckled, giving the taller boy a more genuine smile. And then he noticed, in the distance, on a small bush near the End Wall. "Gonta, I see another bug over there."

"Wha- Bug! Where? Ryoma show Gonta where bug is?"

Ryoma paused, suddenly realizing what was going on. He wanted to go back to his dorm room, yes, and he was tired... But Gonta was a good distraction from everything else. Despite his many problems with the night before, his possible PTSD and mental trauma and his encounter with Kokichi, he found himself making the only decision that didn't end in him having more problems.

"Sure, big guy. I'll cover you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I'd use this chapter to deal with Ryoma's immediate thoughts the next morning on from the incident. Admittedly, I didn't think I'd end up writing 8K words on just the morning alone, but there was a lot of stuff to cram in.
> 
> Next chapter - We get Kirumi's POV on Kokichi's little story he told at the end there, Himiko does a magic show and Tsumugi proposes an idea!


	4. Daily Life 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note - I actually was meant to update this fic over a month ago, but I got hung up on how I portrayed Kokichi in the last chapter. After studying his character and playing through the game and his FTEs a bit more, I think I've got a better hang on his character. This chapter is only half as long as the usual chapters since I just wanted to get this out to show I was still alive, haha! Thanks for the support so far guys! Sorry for the wait!

_**Chapter 4 - Daily Life 3** _

The shower room reeked of the foul stench of vomit. To most, the smell alone would be enough to cause them to recoil with disgust and leave the room without a moment's hesitation. The stench of illness and the miasma that surrounded the shower room was something that most humans could not handle without having reactions themselves... That is unless you were Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid.

Brushing her dull silver bangs off her face, her lips tightened into a scowl at the sight that was in front of her. The darkened shower room that lay just beyond the Ultimate Tennis Pro's research lab was flooded with water and vomit and the sink was scratched up while the tiles that adorned the sink's edge were ripped. There was a slick trail of blood trailing across the floor and a few scarlet cuts on the sink where Ryoma's arms had cut themselves while trying to escape.

She stepped into the shower room with as much grace as she could muster, a pair of mop buckets filled to the brim with bleach and cleaning products in her hands, taking in a deep breath before exhaling loudly. She had to clean the stain that she, herself, had left upon this academy with her actions. For everything that had occurred during the night was her fault and she knew that regardless of Ryoma's suicidal tendencies, she had taken full advantage of those emotions and preyed upon them for her own selfish goal of escape.

Taking one of the mops, she ringed out the mop-head of water and quietly began to clear up the water flooding the floor, allowing herself to sink into the act of cleaning without much resistance, relishing in the fact that she was able to busy herself and keep moving.

But she wasn't cleaning really. She was just hiding her own mess under the smell of bleach and the sweat of her brow.

Her plan had been simple. Kill Ryoma, have his body be moved to the gym via her ropeway for the magic show, incriminate Himiko during her performance and escape this hellhole to discover what crisis was soon to befall her country. She had the resolve and the determination to commit the act of murder, for the good of the many rather than the wants of the few. And even now, she still felt that subtle urge to kill, for her people, regardless of the consequences.

Yet it was a simple blonde-haired girl with a dazzling smile and the confidence of a thousand actresses, who caused her to let go of Ryoma and quell her killing intent.

For a single fleeting moment, the final words of Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist, had fluttered across her mind while she was committing the act of murder. She cared for Kaede, they all had cared for the girl that had tried to rally everyone's spirits. She tried to kill the Mastermind and end the killing game and there was no shame in her actions, regardless of the outcome. Her promise, however, was what everyone remembered the most.

She wanted everyone escape together. And once they escaped, she wanted them all to become friends... Was that even a possibility?

Kirumi didn't think so. Not for her. Not after tonight.

She finished mopping up the water that had pooled near the shower stalls and turned her attention to the window that overlooked the pool. That was where the majority of the vomit was, having dried up somewhat since Ryoma had left the shower room. She glanced at the fluid with subtle disgust, although the sudden pang of guilt that cut into her stomach like a hot knife through butter caused her to change her expression.

She had caused this. It didn't matter about what had happened or what their motives were for the murder attempt. She had caused this entire mess and as a maid, she was the one who had the job of cleaning up after everything had ended.

Her mind began to drift, focusing on those few moments after she had released Ryoma. They had both sat by the window in almost complete silence. And Kirumi found that those moments were so different to everything else she'd felt since arriving at the academy.

Because in those moments, it felt like her title and her talent were unimportant, that her burden to her country was just a figment of her imagination and in those precious minutes, she could pretend that she was just Kirumi Tojo, the eighteen year old girl. Just another ordinary high school student who found herself in a rather horrifying situation.

And it was unsettling.

Being a Maid was everything to her. Being able to serve with selfless devotion and being able to handle any situation that would benefit her employers, that was important to her. But this academy was testing her devotion, and tonight her determination and her drive had shattered like glass for the second time in her career. The only time she had ever been this distraught at failing a request was when she was told to cut conjac and she couldn't pull it off.

How she wished with all her heart to go back to something so trivial. Conjac and murder were very different requests to fail.

What did this mean for her going forwards? Her country was in danger but she now knew she wouldn't be able to kill again as long as the other students couldn't trust her. She'd be suspected in an instant having already tried to take a life, and she wondered if she'd even have the determination to end a life having failed once already through her crumbling resolve.

Taking comfort in the smell of the bleached floors, she finished mopping up the shower room's floor and moved her gaze over to the sink, freezing as she looked at the damage that had been caused. She almost expected to see those marks along the sink embedded in her own arms, a reminder of her guilt and of her actions, yet one glance down put her mind at ease.

Rummaging through her dress, she pulled out a small ragged cloth and some surface cleaner, deciding to just get the job done quick and get it done right. She did not wish to spend more time than was needed in this room.

She polished the rim of the sink and wiped away the blood from the scratched up tiles, silently scraping off the more dried stains with a bit more force than was needed.

And then as she finished polishing the sink, her eyes glanced down to the floor. In the corner, she noticed a small pair of handcuffs sitting motionlessly against the back wall. She froze, noticing the scratch marks upon them and the slight glint of crimson blood stains on the metal.

"How foolish," She uttered to the silence around her, letting out a stifled, panicked laugh. How funny was it that this shower room was for the Ultimate Prisoner and yet the real prisoner in the situation was the maid who had to clean everything up afterwards.

When she left the room a few minutes later, the handcuffs were still in the same spot, lain against the wall.

There were some things she wasn't ready to face just yet.

* * *

For the first time since he had arrived at the academy, Shuichi Saihara had woken up a whole hour before the morning announcement. Or, perhaps a better explanation would be that he hadn't slept very well and insomnia had kept him staring at the ceiling of his darkened bedroom all night as his mind raced at a hundred miles per hour, trying to process the night's events.

As a detective, he was taught to uncover the truth. For the truth was absolute and everything else was a pack of lies.

But the truth of the incident the night before had shaken him. Kirumi was the Prime Minister of Japan and was responsible for the livelihood of everyone within the country. That was, surprisingly, the easiest truth to believe. And that really set the tone. The fact that an eighteen year old maid was in charge of the country was the easiest thing to accept.

The fact that said maid was also willing to kill just to escape this place, sacrificing the lives of everyone in the school, that was harder to take in. Kirumi had been nothing but kind to everyone in the academy, accepting all of their requests whenever they had any problems and just generally being a strong pillar of emotion for some of the school. There was a reason why Kokichi called her Mom after all.

Had Kirumi simply done all of her requests and helped out the group so much with the sole purpose to gain their trust for her inevitable betrayal? Or had she only recently planned to escape the academy? These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he had attempted to sleep the night prior, ultimately giving up and slipping out of his room early for breakfast.

As he walked through the silent dormitories, walking through the main room towards the glass door that led outside, his eyes glanced over to the room at the back of the dorms that held his other reason for insomnia.

The hardest truth that he had to deal with that night was the full extent of Ryoma Hoshi's will to live, or in this case, his severe lack of a will to live. Giving up your life for anyone in this academy was an invitation to disaster, and on top of that, a selfish act that could end up condemning the whole group. And Shuichi wasn't about to let Ryoma deal with that alone.

He knew that he wanted to get to know Ryoma during those first few days at the school. The tennis pro was mysterious and quiet, warning everyone to keep away from him due to his tragic past. And yet he was also one of the more helpful in the group. During Kaede's Trial, he provided some good logical ideas and while Hoshi, more often than not, got into debates with Kaede when she was leading the group to the truth, he proved himself to be quite reliable during the whole crisis.

Saihara was distraught after Kaede's death but complying with her wish and becoming friends with everyone in the school had become his new goal. And he had decided that he wanted to help Ryoma. Shuichi had his own problems, heck, they all had their own problems, yet he felt drawn to the smaller boy and something inside of him wanted to ensure that Ryoma would regain that fighting spirit that Kaito had often alluded to in their conversations about the tennis pro.

And the day before on the tennis court, he thought he saw a glimpse of the real Ryoma Hoshi underneath all that nonsense about him being a shell of his former self. He saw the tennis pro who enjoyed the sport and was willing to actually pick up a racket and play the game. He saw a boy who still had the will to live and, over the last few days, he felt that he had gotten extremely close to the teen.

Last night was a brutal reminder that it meant nothing in the Killing Game.

It was a slap in the face that told him, he couldn't know what anybody was thinking and assuming they held the same morals as him was an invitation to disaster. That was how Kaede ended up fooling him up until Rantaro's death, that was how Kirumi was able to move about so freely without anyone suspecting her the night before and that was why he thought Ryoma had truly changed for the better.

He peeled his gaze away from the tennis pro's room and pushed open the main door of the dorms. He needed to focus on something else for the time being.

* * *

When Shuichi arrived at the dining hall that morning, he found that most of the students had already beaten him there, having all gotten up in the early hours of the morning to eat.

Glancing around, Kaito was sitting with a rather annoyed looking Maki on the far end of the table. Tenko was fawning over Himiko while Angie prayed quietly next to them. Kiyo was by the wall, watching everyone with his sharp gaze, glancing towards Shuichi as he entered. The detective thought he could see the Anthropologist raise his hand just barely upwards, like a waving gesture, which he silently returned.

Gonta was nowhere to be seen and Iruma wasn't around either. He wasn't that surprised about Miu not waking up early given her temperament, but he was surprised that Gonta hadn't shown up yet. In fact, as he looked around, it seemed that Tsumugi and Keebo were absent as well.

Looking towards the far left side of the room, he half expected to the see the short form of Ryoma sitting near the wall, trying to keep a low profile, but he was disappointed to see that the tennis pro had not shown up, or if he had, he'd already left for parts unknown.

The sound of something clanging in the kitchen made him turn to the right, peering through the kitchen window to see that their silver-haired almost-culprit, Kirumi Tojo, was hard at work in the kitchen cooking up what looked like some sort of hot-pot. No doubt a part of Tenko's diet.

But he couldn't help the nerves that were bubbling in the pit of his stomach, as he decided to slip into a seat near Kaito and Maki.

The cheerful atmosphere that was settled over the group seemed like it could break in an instant, the events of last night and everybody's motive videos weighing on his mind like a bundle of rocks. Everyone knew each other's motives aside from Angie, Maki and, most worryingly of all, Kokichi, who all had not brought their motive videos to the lab the night before.

And with that knowledge came the unspoken question on everyone's minds. Was anybody going to bring up the events of the night before and acknowledge that it happened?

As far as he could tell, the answer was no.

From the far corner, he could hear Tenko exclaim, "If we're rescheduling the magic show, I'll help you prepare!" Followed by a rather low 'Nyeh' sound.

"Hey, Shuichi, you look exhausted man," Kaito pointed out, watching as Shuichi rested his head on the table.

"You didn't sleep, did you?" Maki asked in her cold voice.

He only nodded his head at her question, glancing at the pair with a raised brow. He knew that Kaito had been trying to get Maki on board with becoming a part of the main group ever since she went and locked herself in her ultimate lab, but actually seeing her chatting with him in a public space was a very different feeling. Even if she couldn't hide how much she didn't want to be here with the stormy expression gracing her face.

"After last night, sleep was the last thing on my mind," He admitted to the pair.

The sound of footsteps coming from behind him caused him to jump up, turning to see the tall form of Kirumi, who was looking at him with an unreadable poker face. He couldn't imagine what she must be feeling, but it couldn't be all sunshine and rainbows in her head. "Kirumi?"

"Ah, Shuichi, I was wondering if you required a refreshment of some sort. Perhaps a tea or a glass of water?" She stood there, as she did every other morning, waiting for Shuichi to order something, but Shuichi couldn't help hesitating as he looked into her eyes.

"T-Tea," He spluttered, turning away with a quiet, "Thanks Kirumi," as he did so.

"As you wish," She silently muttered, turning away and walking back towards the kitchen. He wasn't sure, but she seemed to be walking faster than normal. And that told him everything he needed to know.

That was until Kaito's carefree voice broke into his thoughts. "Man, you need to lighten up on Kirumi. Sure, she did some stuff, but she's trying to make up for it and you're staring at her like she's an animal in a cage."

He opened his mouth, ready to deliver his own retort, but the dark haired girl beat him to it, "She tried to kill one of us. Regardless of Ryoma's want for death, she instigated a crime."

"But she stopped herself," Kaito added, grinning at the pair.

That was when another voice, one they weren't expecting to hear, chimed in. Kiyo had moved from his place by the wall, clearly interested by their discussion. "However you must remember, she showed a Killing Intent. Clearly, she had a change of heart and I would love to understand what caused it myself, but you cannot ignore the fact that she attempted a murder. Especially in a killing game like this."

"But we forgave her. And nobody bothered to speak up last night," Kaito replied, staring intensely at the masked teenager.

"No, Kaito. You forgave her. But not everybody holds that same sentiment. To judge others by your own morals and standards, it invites disaster." Though they couldn't see it, Shuichi thought Kiyo's mask crinkled up into a smile of sorts at that last word, his meaning hanging across the trio at the table.

"Hey Shuichi, you at least agree with me, right? That Kirumi deserves to be forgiven?" Kaito was clearly trying to lobby for his opinion, but Shuichi couldn't help hesitating.

"Do you forgive a guy who stabs you, but at the last minute decides to go for the leg and not a vital spot," Maki stated calmly.

Kaito frowned. "C'mon Maki Roll, that's a completely different situation."

Maki narrowed her eyes, leaning slightly across the table towards the astronaut. "How is it different?"

"It just is, alright. I trust Kirumi, and if I end up getting killed or she ends up killing someone else, that's on me!"

"Oh, that's just great to hear Kaito!" A loud voice called out, everyone pausing at the sing-song sound of the voice that absolutely nobody wanted to hear. "Good morning classmates, how is everybody doing today?"

Shuichi turned his head to view the purple-haired Supreme Leader stroll through the doors, Kokichi Ouma's arms flung up in the air waving to nobody in particular. Nobody replied, not even Kiyo, causing the natural liar to frown at the group gathered in the dining hall.

"Oh come on, not even a warm welcome? You all seem pretty cozy given all the drama from last night!" As Kokichi grinned at the group, the air seemed to run cold with tension as everyone become distinctly aware of what Kokichi had said. Well, except for one person.

"Nyahaha! Why is everybody so down? Atua says we should all be happy and relaxed. This tension is bad for His health," Angie chided. Shuichi couldn't decide whether her ability to read the room was abysmal or horribly calculated given the reaction she got from Himiko, the magician nodding with the artist enthusiastically.

"Why the heck does Atua get sick from our tension?" Tenko asked.

"It's because He worries about you, silly Tenko," Angie laughed, patting Himiko on the shoulder. "Isn't that right Himiko?"

"Nyeh? Yeah... Totally..." Himiko drawled, blinking slowly as she did so.

"Ignoring that load of teen drama, how's it going Shuichi? Y'know, you and Kaito both totes stopped a murder. Cheer up!" Kokichi was smiling at the group, and for a moment, Shuichi thought he could actually see a glimmer of truth in the boy's eyes. He seemed actually happy about the murder being stopped.

That was when Kirumi decided to enter from the kitchen with a cup of green tea for Shuichi.

"Ah, good morning Kokich-"

Tojo couldn't get the rest of the welcome out before Kokichi turned away from the group and Kirumi, a large scowl forming across his face.

"Hey, Kokichi, at least be polite, damnit!" Kaito growled.

"Not with her!" Kokichi span around, pointing at Kirumi, who was still standing there with tea in her hands.

Shuichi decided to grab the tea from Kirumi before anything could happen, giving her a silent thanks as he moved the cup to the table, before shifting his focus onto the conversation ahead of him. Clearly Kokichi was irritated and Kirumi seemed to be the target of said irritation.

Kirumi, for it was worth, stayed silent as Kokichi's finger pointed in her direction. Though she had an intense poker face, Shuichi imagined she was probably thinking the same thing everyone was. It was about the night before.

"I'm just saying, I can't trust my mom anymore," He finally explained, crossing his arms and letting a smirk cross his face. His lips widened as he gave a Cheshire grin, whispering, "How can I trust someone who almost became a murderer overnight?"

"Kokichi, I think that's enough," Shuichi began, finally speaking up to the Supreme Leader.

But he didn't expect Kokichi's ire to turn on him, "Riiiight, Shuichi, I don't know how you do it. You seem to make friends with murderers everywhere you go. First Kaede, then Ryoma, now Kirumi." Kokichi let his eyes rest on Shuichi's group, unbeknownst to everyone else, his glare being on Maki. "I wonder who else has dirty little secrets..."

"Now that's going too far, man!" Kaito shouted, pushing up off the table in a blinding speed. "You've got no right to insult the dead like that!"

"Kaede was trying to kill the Mastermind," Tenko added from across the room, getting involved in the fight herself. "I don't care about you degenerate males, but you leave the girls alone!"

"Actually, speaking of murderers, I actually do want to speak with you Kirumi!" Kokichi's smirk slid off of his face, his features darkening, becoming more serious. "I just wanted to know how it felt to drown someone."

At that, the room became an uproar. Shuichi felt himself shut down, everything becoming a blur. He distinctly remembered Kaito launching towards Kokichi, Maki right by him, Kiyo taking a step back towards the table with the girls and Kirumi retreating to the Kitchen. There was a lot of shouting, a lot of language that he thought wouldn't even sound right coming out of Miu's mouth.

But before Kaito could lay a hand on the Leader, he had already bolted from the Dining Hall, leaving everyone in utter confusion and turmoil. That was when Shuichi decided to leave the cafeteria before things could get any more hectic, downing his green tea and moving towards the outside door before the others could notice. After the stress of the night before, the last thing he wanted was to see his friends fighting.

He knew Kaito would be confused, possibly annoyed that Shuichi wasn't sticking with him on this one, but just this once, Shuichi felt like looking the other way and ignoring the problem, if only for a few minutes of relief.

Taking a few steps across the outside terrace, he was surprised to see Miu sitting out on the porch, deep in thought, twirling around a small object in her hands that, from his view, looked like some sort of ball. She was thankfully looking away from him and seemed to be engrossed in whatever item was in her hand, giving him the moment he needed to sneak around her, finally stepping out onto the garden path.

"I need a rest," Shuichi finally admitted to himself. Though he enjoyed his classmates, he was sure they could do one day without him watching them. After Kirumi's murder attempt, committing a murder would be stupid since everyone was silently expecting something to happen, so using that logic he had a feeling it would be a quiet day.

He'd go watch Himiko's magic show later on and everyone would be as happy as possible. He'd train with Kaito in the evening and see if he can get Ryoma to join in, if even for a small while. And everyone would get along.

He couldn't even stifle the dark laughter of Monokuma in his head as he thought that. Shuichi wasn't naive enough to think things would be perfect. He knew that Monokuma would just add another motive into the mix or try to cause them to kill each other all over again. He could only hope he'd be ready for it when the time comes.

Deciding to head back to his room, he jogged down the path around the school, stopping outside the building that he'd come out of not an hour before. Pushing open the glass door of the dormitory, he took a look over at the door belonging to the Tennis Pro, his mind shifting from the frustration of his classmates to the worries he felt over the boy yet to come out of his room. He was still worried about Ryoma. That much couldn't be denied, although a small seed of bitterness had nestled deep inside when he thought about Ryoma willingly giving up his life. That broken promise of theirs shattered in an instant.

His worry won out.

At that moment, the tell tale sounds of the morning announcement began to reverberate across the grounds, causing him to jump slightly. Had it already been an entire hour since he woke up? Or more appropriately, had it already been an hour since he was forced out of his room by his insomnia?

He walked over to Ryoma's door, quietly clicking the doorbell once with the hope that someone would answer. He didn't want to imagine any of the alternatives.

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding in when he noticed the door crack open and a pair of rather tired looking eyes glanced up towards him. But as he looked down at the tennis pro, who quietly opened up the door, Ryoma instantly looked away.

 _He won't look at my eyes again..._  Shuichi thought, the fact causing him to inwardly frown. Outwardly, he tried to smile at Ryoma, but the tennis pro seemed more bothered than anything else.

"What do you want?" Ryoma asked, his voice biting and cold. Shuichi felt himself stiffen up at that, definitely not expecting the hostility he was getting from the smaller teen.

"You weren't at the cafeteria," He replied. "I came to see if you were alright, y'know." And he meant that. Shuichi wanted nothing more than to ensure the safety of the younger boy. After all, he knew about Ryoma's plan that eventually lead to his attack. It was the least he could do for not failing to stop Ryoma himself.

"I'm fine, thanks," Ryoma muttered under his breath, slipping out into the main room, locking his door behind him. There was a definite melancholy to the prisoner, he seemed to be acting more like he had during their first encounter. Was he trying to distance himself again, even after the night before when Shuichi stood up for him? "I'll head over there now."

"I'll go with you," He replied just a little too quickly. Mainly because he knew just what was going on at the cafeteria and assuming everyone was still there, Ryoma might not want to be alone. And with Kirumi being around as well, it wasn't a good environment for the tennis pro.

But he wasn't expecting Ryoma's reply. "I'm fine." A cold, distant, forceful reply that told Shuichi all he needed to know. His eyes had widened slightly at the aggression behind Ryoma's words, but didn't bother to stop the tennis pro as he stalked past the detective, heading for the main doors.

Shuichi just stood there, silently for a few moments, before retiring to his own room to rest. The only tell that Shuichi was frustrated being the rather loud slam of his dormitory door.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to make this chapter about half the length of the usual chapters, since I wanted to get this out and show people that I'm still working on the fic. I hit a bit of a brick wall after having some characterization issues, but I've replayed the game and started a Tumblr Ask Blog to try and work on character characterizations. I'm just trying to figure out how I want some aspects of this story to go, then I'll be writing full speed.
> 
> My goal with this fic is to focus on Ryoma and Shuichi's friendship/relationship, but keep it in the confines of a Danganronpa story, so deaths have to happen. Naturally that makes things a bit tough, but I'll persevere!
> 
> If anyone's curious about the Ask Blog, here's a link - https://danganronpa-v3-ask-away.tumblr.com/


End file.
